Shadowed Past
by Stripes of Scarlet
Summary: FULL SUMMARY INSIDE Karuka is constantly haunted by her horrible past and wants to forget it all or at least die.But when she is captured by the gang a problem involving her Amulet & her past arises and she may be the key to another demons greed R
1. Default Chapter

This is my very first fic EVER! So please be nice

Disclaimer: no own nada! Not yu yu hakusho or any anime alive or written

Full summary: Karuka, a descendant of shadow legend, is exiled to crime after witnessing her family's brutal deaths. Now after being caught for robbery and murder, she must work with the gang till her probation is lifted. However, a threatening attack on the world's elemental gems may result in no more Earth, Makai or Spirit world. But how does all of this fit in with Karuka and her Shadow Amulet? More then Karuka cares to think about.

So much better than it sounds if you think it sounds crappy. Please read it.

Chapter 1: brought back to life

"Where are they? I CALLED FOR THEM TWO HOURS AGO!!" Yelled a frustrated Koenma.

"I'm sure they were just held up sir" replied the less than usually happy ferry, simply known as Botan "maybe they couldn't find each other."

As Botan said this the door behind them burst open wide enough to reveal four boys slowly walking in. Yusuke stood there along with Kurama, Kuwabara walked to sit in a chair and Hiei went to occupy the window sill.

"Where have you been? I specifically told you this was an important mission."

"We were held up is all; you don't have to get all mad about it." Said Kuwabara, sinking lower into his seat as he felt more discouraged from the yelling. Koenma walked closer to Yusuke, who now was leaning against the far wall next to the door.

"Read this," Koenma said, throwing a manila folder at him… he caught it easily.

"Karuka Mokushi," Yusuke began, "height: unknown, age: unknown, demonic type: thinks to be shadow."

"Hey, that's a profile", shouted Kuwabara, unwittingly interrupting Yusuke.

"No duh you moronic freak, what else would it be, his grocery list!" Said the short-tempered Hiei.

"Hey! Shut up Shrimp, I was simply stating what he was reading!"

"Could you two be quiet I'm trying to read!" Yelled Yusuke.

"Well that's a first." Snuffed Hiei as everything went quiet.

Koenma broke the short silence. "This girl is very dangerous; she has committed practically every felony in the book."

"But how is that possible? Her record isn't even half a page long."

"Well Yusuke," spoke a recently quiet Botan, "she destroyed all of her other records before we could confirm them and record them into the system."

"But what we do have on her is quite a lot for a female demon, 27 counts of theft, all of which were successful, 16 counts of murder, and 1 count of assassination."

"Assassination?" Spoke Kurama.

"Geez, who'd she have to kill to make it an assassination?" Said Kuwabara.

"The Hime no toras, or, the princess of all tigers. And the scary part is she died when Karuka would have only been a child, so she must have great powers, seeing as how the princess of all tigers was a very skilled fighter."

"If she killed this princess when she was a child, then why have you not tried to kill her before?" Asked a confused Hiei, turning his attention away from the window.

"Because we did not confirm her killing the princess until we went back to the palace into an old worn dojo outside of it to find a dagger with Karuka's name in it with the princess's, and several other demon's blood on it."

"Okay, so where can we find this girl, and what does she look like?" Asked Kurama.

Yusuke looked down at the picture provided in the folder as Koenma put a larger version of it on his screen. It showed a young, beautiful woman on it, though it could have easily been mistaken for a girl. She had short brown hair that fell before her shoulders and bangs that fell in front of her left eye. Though she left her right one free to reveal a pale green eye seeming to be staring straight at them hauntingly. She wore all black, black shoes, black pants that cuffed right above her ankles, a black tank top, and six arm bands, three on each arm. She also had a gold chain around her neck that disappeared under her shirt, hiding a jewel of some sort, if any.

"She doesn't look very happy." Kuwabara pouted.

"Koenma, do you have any information on her past?" Asked, again, by Kurama.

"No, I'm afraid we don't. Her past information was the first thing she destroyed when she broke in."

"Maybe she didn't want anyone to know of it." Spoke Hiei, this time not bothering to turn his head.

Kuwabara shifted his sitting position until he stood up.

"I don't care about her past, all I now is she's HOT!" Botan flung out her oar and hit Kuwabara on the head for the rude comment.

"Don't say that! She's a living thing with real feelings and emotions! If she heard you she would defiantly break a limb of yours!"

"Then why don't we go get her so she can." Smirked Hiei at the thought of it.

"Fine then let's get going! Where is she Koenma?" Asked Yusuke.

"She has been detected in the makai making illegal resurrection acts for money and bountiful rewards. We have note that she is about to resurrect a demon tonight but we are unsure of who, so-" Koenma was cut off by a horrified ogre bursting into the room, papers flying everywhere.

"KOENMA WE KNOW WHO KARUKA IS RESURRECTING!" Shouted the ogre.

"WHO? TELL ME!" Koenma yelled back grabbing the ogre by the collar.

"IT'S RANDO!"

That was my first chappie EVER! Please review PLEASE!!!!!!!!


	2. stronger?

Disclaimer: I don't own yu yu hakusho (though I really wish I did)  
  
Chapter 2: Stronger?  
  
"She's going to resurrect Rando? What is she nuts?" Asked Yusuke, dropping the folder on the ground and landing on its crease to make a distinct noise throughout the room.  
  
"What time?" Said Koenma, trying to keep his composure to the shocking, yet understandable, news.  
  
"Midnight, at Death's Last Wish Cliff." Replied the hurt ogre rubbing his neck after Koenma had let go.  
  
"I advise you all to train your hardest for tonight. This girl is no joke and is known for no mercy fighting. Meet here at 8 o'clock because it will take a while to get there." Koenma informed, now thinking of what to put on their tombstones, just in case.  
  
"Also boys, if she successfully resurrects Rando, be very careful for him." Said Botan.  
  
"We don't need to worry about him, I beat him once and I can beat him again no problem." Said a confident Yusuke.  
  
"No, you don't understand. If he comes back he will be stronger then he was before."  
  
"Yes Yusuke, she's right," sad Kurama, "when demons are brought back to life whoever did so can make them as strong as they like."  
  
"Wow, that's freaky. That Rando guy was hard enough to kill, I mean, I had to give most of my life energy to Yusuke to beat him."  
  
"Well that isn't saying much." croaked a silently laughing Hiei.  
  
"SHUT UP SHORTY! OR I'LL HIT YOU SO HARD KURAMA'S GONNA FEEL IT!"  
  
"Like you're even fast enough to hit me." Then Kuwabara was going to reply but was interrupted by Koenma.  
  
"You must go train now before its too late!"  
  
"Fine! Let's go you babies!" said Yusuke, now walking out the door with Kurama right behind. Kuwabara left with a look of anger and defeat on his face, and Hiei walked by with nothing but a smirk.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sorry it was this short but the next part just seems better to be another chapter  
  
~please review~ 


	3. training and darkness

Disclaimer in other two chapters  
  
Chapter 3: training and darkness  
  
It was getting late after four hours of training. Kurama was helping Kuwabara with his spirit sword; Yusuke was training by himself as was Hiei.  
  
"Oh crap, its 7:30, we have to get going!"  
  
The four boys ran through the forest to get back to Koenma's so they wouldn't get yelled at for being late. Luckily for them, they were right on time.  
  
"Glad to see that you were listening to me. Now, to get to Death's Last Wish Cliff you must go through a few minor obstacles, but they shouldn't be anything big so don't waste too much energy on them." The boys just nodded as they left to find Karuka.  
  
*~later~*  
  
"You know, I don't see why I had to come. You all know that I'm not going to fight her right?" said Kuwabara.  
  
"Of course we know that, you're just a back up."  
  
"Not that we would need you if she was a guy." laughed Hiei.  
  
"Hey!" Kuwabara was cut short.  
  
"Please, not now you guys."  
  
Suddenly all four boys froze dead in their tracks.  
  
"Do you feel that?"  
  
"Yes, an incredibly large amount of energy is being let out. Let's not waste any more time, come on."  
  
*~Death's Last Wish Cliff~*  
  
"Is everything ready now Karuka?" asked a feeble little demon.  
  
"Yes. Do you have the body?" she asked him. He nodded and handed a tiny Rando over.  
  
"You may be a small demon, but you're a great thief. May I ask how you managed to obtain him from Koenma's security?"  
  
"Oh, well, that's my little secret." said the demon. Karuka was not happy with his answer. She simply huffed and let it slide.  
  
Karuka walked over to a ceremonial circle she had made with items of her own. She sat down. It was nearing midnight now and she asked the demon to move further away so she could get ready for the resurrection. She placed Rando's tiny limp body in the middle of the circle and walked five feet away.  
  
She sat on her shins with a cloak around her covering her face and she began to chant.  
  
"Sora, taiyou, saisei, umi, kaminari, saisei, nami, hanoo, saisei, inazuma, mayonaku, saisei!" spoke Karuka as Rando's body floated above her head and the circle. The weather started to stir. There was lightning and thunder, there were waves crashing up against the cliff and the sky drew dark and dreary.  
  
*~with the boys~*  
  
"The sky is turning black!"  
  
"She's started the resurrection we must hurry!"  
  
*~back with Karuka~*  
  
Rando's body began to spin around and the little demon's face light up with happiness.  
  
"It's working! It's working!" he yelled.  
  
Then suddenly Karuka stopped everything.  
  
"Where is the gem?" she asked him.  
  
"What?" he asked back.  
  
"I said where is the gem?" she replied.  
  
"Why don't you finish the resurrection first?"  
  
"If you don't tell me now the ocean will take the demon's body." As Karuka said this Rando's body moved over the ocean with the waves still kicking up with each hand movement she made.  
  
"Are you nuts?" yelled the demon over all the noise.  
  
"I will ask you one more time, where is the gem?"  
  
The little demon, not wanting his master to float away into the ocean, gave in and answered. But just as he was about to tell her Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama and Hiei came out of the forest.  
  
"It's in Satori City." said the little demon. "Now bring him back to life!" he demanded.  
  
Yusuke was truly afraid of Karuka bringing Rando back, but there was nothing he could do about it, so, he stood and stared as did the other three.  
  
"Thank you so much you weak little moron!" cried Karuka with a big evil grin on her face. Suddenly, the sky began to clear and the thunder and lightning stopped. Also, the ocean quieted down.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" asked the demon. Rando's body slowly lowered to the ground. Karuka stood up and grabbed Rando then broke his tiny body in half, dropping them to the grass. The four onlookers just gasped.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HOW COULD YOU?!" asked the now crying demon, running to his old master's side.  
  
"It was simply business, now get out of my face! I don't want to see your poor excuse of a living thing, move!" yelled Karuka with little patience. She began to walk away from the site just as the demon was too chanting a spell.  
  
"I learned one thing from master Rando, and I'm going to use it to avenge his death by killing you!"  
  
Karuka didn't look at all scared. All she did was raise her hand as he began his spell, and blew his head off with a dead on blast of black light. The remaining body fell on its back, and Karuka began to walk away again. Karuka remembered what she had felt earlier and turned around to four wide eyed detectives.  
  
"Did you enjoy that?" she asked. Coming back to their senses, the all got in defensive mode, even Kuwabara.  
  
"What? Are you afraid of me?" Yusuke slowly walked over with the three behind him still ready to defend any attempts of trying to blow their heads off.  
  
"Karuka Mo-Mokushi?" she still had her hood on over her head. She lifted it to reveal that it was her.  
  
"So, Koenma sent some pawns to catch me huh? Well, I'm sorry to burst your pathetic little bubble, but I really must be going now." She began to slowly back up towards the edge of the cliff, till her heels were completely over.  
  
"What do you think you are doing?" asked Kurama and Kuwabara in unison.  
  
"Well, if you must ask, I have a priceless gem to steal, and I don't feel like fighting right now, so good bye."  
  
Karuka stepped over the cliff and her body disappeared from their sight. They all ran over to the edge and just as they did, Karuka's body came flying straight up. She made a motion of going into the forest but did a 180 and was now flying over the ocean. The boys lost sight of her body as it faded into the darkness.  
  
"DAMMIT!" yelled Yusuke.  
  
"So, she can fly." Retorted Hiei with a gruff and crossed his arms.  
  
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
  
That was my third chapter! WOOO HOOO! That was the longest one yet, but they probably will get longer. By the way, Karuka's name is not Japanese, I made it up. But her last name and the chant were all kanji!  
  
Mokushi- apocalypse (I just thought that would be a cool last name!)  
  
Sora- sky  
  
Taiyou- sun  
  
Umi- Ocean  
  
Kaminari- thunder  
  
Nami- wave  
  
Hanoo- flame  
  
Inazuma- lightning  
  
Mayonaku- midnight  
  
Saisei- rebirth  
  
~PLEASE REVIEW~ Arigato! 


	4. the shadow amulet

Read now please  
  
Chapter 4: the shadow amulet  
  
As the boys walked back to Koenma's office, they feared what was to happen to them.  
  
"Great, we're so gonna get yelled at for this." Said Yusuke.  
  
"What I don't understand is why the oaf didn't tell us that she had begun the ceremony, and not let the clouds do it for him." said Hiei, just trying to pick a fight with someone.  
  
"Hey don't blame me, I couldn't even feel her energy signal." replied Kuwabara trying not to look like the idiot of the case as he always is.  
  
"Maybe you're losing your touch." Said Yusuke grinning evilly.  
  
"Actually Yusuke, Kuwabara is right. She kept her energy hidden quite well, right until the very last possible moment." Replied Kurama.  
  
"Well all I know is that Koenma's gonna have our hides for this."  
  
"I don't get it, I felt the girl's energy signal as she was flying away and she isn't that much of a threat." said Hiei.  
  
Suddenly a blue haired ferry girl popped out of no where scaring Yusuke half out of his wits.  
  
"DON'T DO THAT!"  
  
"I'm sorry Yusuke I didn't mean to scare you like that. Did you kill Karuka?" The boys just looked at each other nervously.  
  
"Well..." Yusuke brought out.  
  
"Well what... did you?"  
  
"Not exactly."  
  
"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T KILL HER?! SHE MUST BE DEAD FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY!!"  
  
"We are truly sorry Botan, but she got away before we could fight her." Said Kurama trying to bring back a little bit of sanity to the girl.  
  
"YES... well," she said, toning it down a little, "we must get back to Koenma's office fast, he has more information that Karuka didn't destroy. Oh dear, how am I ever to tell Lord Koenma?"  
  
*~later in Koenma's office~*  
  
"WHAT!?" Yelled a stunned Koenma, nearly having the pacifier fall straight out of his mouth.  
  
"Uh... we're sorry?" replied an afraid Kuwabara.  
  
"Please, Koenma sir. Can you show the boys the new info you found?"  
  
"Yes, I suppose so." Said Koenma, twitching.  
  
A picture of a tall slender man popped up on the big screen.  
  
"This, we think, is Karuka's father." He started. The man stood tall and confident, and showed no fear in his pale green eyes.  
  
"We believe that he is a cause of Karuka's anger and murder spree."  
  
"Wait just a second, in her profile it said that Karuka had no known family." Said Yusuke.  
  
"Yes, that is true but we have good reason to believe this is her father."  
  
"And what would that be?" asked Kurama.  
  
"The chain around his neck." Spoke Hiei who had been overly quiet since he walked in.  
  
"Yes, you are right Hiei. The chain around his neck looks to be the same as the one Karuka has. We found info on him and we found out some interesting things." Koenma took out another folder like the one he threw to Yusuke.  
  
"Name: Truyo Mokushi, height: unknown demonic type: shadow. Fighting stat.: S-class and the list goes on showing us that he was a very skilled demon in the art of shadow. It also says here that he is from the line of the very first shadow demon... the one who created the shadow amulet." Kurama and Hiei gasped at what they had heard, but Yusuke and Kuwabara looked as confused as ever.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
"The shadow amulet is one of the most powerful jewels in all of Makai history. When the original shadow demon created it, he put all of his power into it when he died, and gave it to the youngest of all his offspring so he or she could have it as long as possible. This process has continued throughout history, going to the youngest of all the holder's children. It is possible for the amulet to be handed to a demon outside of the family, but only when the holder is killed in a shadow fight."  
  
"What's a shadow fight?"  
  
"I'm sorry, but that is too complex for me to answer. But I do know that the fights are always brutal. You see, shadow demons are one of the rarest species now, and the amulet is literally priceless. Demons far and wide will travel for a shot at even touching it, let alone being able to fight for it. It has never gone outside of the family ever, because the family itself is the strongest of its breed, and I am surprised that they, out of all the shadows, are still alive."  
  
"We right now think that Karuka is the last of the original family and is the possessor of the shadow amulet. So, in a weird way, it was a good thing you didn't kill her, for if you did the whole shadow demon race would be killed." Said Botan.  
  
"Why would all of the demons be killed?" asked Yusuke, continuing on with his questions.  
  
"Because, all of the shadow demons thrive on that amulet, even though they don't know it. They live off of its power, and if the possessor dies not in a shadow fight and doesn't have any offspring for the amulet to go to, it is destroyed, along with all of the shadows who wanted it."  
  
"I'm still confused, if she is supposed to be one of the strongest shadow demons out there, then why did her energy feel so weak?" asked Hiei. "Was she wearing a black cloak that looked like this?" A picture of a cloak popped up on the screen.  
  
"Yes it did." Replied Kurama.  
  
"Well, this is an energy cover cloak; it can cover all energy when it is too large to be covered by the demon."  
  
"Whoa... so she was that strong?"  
  
"Yes, and now that we think she has the shadow amulet, you must find her and do not kill her, bring her here instead. Do you have any idea where she might be?"  
  
The boys looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing 'Satori City'.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* that was my fourth chapter and I know it was kind of boring, talking about some necklace but that necklace is really important to the story and I promise the next chapter will be more exciting ( or maybe not!)  
  
*~ Please Review~* 


	5. Satori City

Shade - I'm back!  
  
People- Boooooooooooooooooooo! *throws rotten food*  
  
Shade – Ow! That hurt! *more rotten food*  
  
Shade – Since I'm busy right now can someone else do the disclaimer? *hit with apple and knocked out*  
  
Yusuke- Think she's o.k.?  
  
Kuwa- *shrugs* Anyways Shade doesn't own anything besides things you have never heard before in your life!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 5: Satori City  
  
As the four boys ran through the forest nearing Satori City, Hiei had a thought, 'How could she have been so strong that she needed that cloak to cover up her own energy? Couldn't she have been strong enough to do it herself? It still makes no sense to me.'  
  
They ran through a clearing looking at the City's landscape. It was obviously a rich demons country.  
  
"Geez, and to think I wondered why she wanted to come here so bad to find some gem, this place is stinkin' rich!" Griped Yusuke.  
  
"Well Yusuke, there are some of the most rich demons living in Satori city, most households have at least twelve butlers." Replied Kurama.  
  
"Twelve! I don't even have one!"  
  
"Please, it would take fifty butlers to clean your room Kuwabara!"  
  
"Hn, and fifty more to scrub your feet." Said Hiei under his breath.  
  
"I heard that shorty!"  
  
"Come on, let's go." And with that the boys ran down the hill to Satori City.  
  
*~ in Satori City (night) ~*  
  
-Karuka's P.O.V.-  
  
As I crept down to the Satori Museum, I kept thinking about those four boys I had met earlier. The two red heads were worried of me walking towards the edge of that cliff, and the tall dark haired one had worry in his eyes, but the shorter one didn't seem to care at all. 'Obviously never had a girlfriend' I thought to myself. I smirked at my own joke. I walked up the cement stairs to the museum; I could feel energy signals inside. 'Hn, weak' I changed into my shadow form, and entered through the crack in the door.  
  
-End Karuka's P.O.V.-  
  
The boys fled down to the museum but kept quiet. They could hear faint screams that seemed to be muffled by something or someone.  
  
"Do you hear that?" Whispered Yusuke to Kuwabara.  
  
"Yeah, sounds like someone being killed."  
  
"That's because someone is." Kurama said in a sad, mourning voice.  
  
"Well that must be Karuka then." Said Hiei.  
  
"Let's go."  
  
*~ inside ~*  
  
Karuka was inching closer to the gem that was inside a glass case. The gem was a brilliant green color, much like Kurama's eyes. There was card sitting in front of the gem that read 'the Santifugi Gem is one of the rarest jewels in the world. Its bright green exterior is caused from sunlight hitting it at all hours of the day, even night. It stores the suns energy and feeds off it at any time it needs. If this Gem were to be destroyed all light in the three worlds would be diminished.'  
  
"Perfect, if there is no light anymore I can steal anything I want, and kill anyone I want, without having to wait for night to fall." She said out loud to herself. Karuka hit the corner of the glass case, making a small hole that was perfect for her. She touched the corner and a black light slowly moved towards the gem, engulfing it in darkness, right before turning it into a shadow itself. When Karuka was finished removing the gem her nose twitched, she sensed more energy in the room.  
  
"Who's there?" She said as she turned around to nothing but shadows and dead bodies of the security guards she 'spoke with' earlier. Karuka never let down her guard, she knew someone was there, and wasn't going to move until she saw them. Yusuke was the first to walk out and speak.  
  
"Hello Karuka." He said.  
  
"Oh, it's you. Don't your friends want to play too?" And with that, Karuka saw three more figures appear from the shadows.  
  
'The four boys from before, seems like they don't want to quite.' She thought to herself.  
  
"So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way, your choice." Said Hiei, in his most intimidating voice he could muster.  
  
"I always love a challenge." Karuka said while getting into a stance that Hiei nor the other boys had ever seen before.  
  
"Interesting last words."  
  
"I was about to say the same thing to you." Karuka threw off her cloak (I forgot to mention that she was wearing that) and the boys were hit with a large energy signal that almost made them fall over.  
  
Karuka was glowing with black energy and all they could do was stare. Karuka looked the same as from her picture, but in some weird way different. She still had short brown hair, but it was coated with blood from before. She had those pale green eyes that just screamed save me, but in person they said even more. She even had the same clothes as from her picture, all black, black pants, black tank top, and six black bands around her two upper arms. She was full of hate, and it showed.  
  
"You wanna fight? Then let's fight." She said, and then suddenly disappeared. She reappeared right behind Hiei and punched him between the shoulder blades. Hiei cried out in pain.  
  
"Woah, she's fast." Said Yusuke, as Karuka disappeared and reappeared again, this time in front of Hiei trying to kick him but he dodged.  
  
Quickly Hiei drew his katana to fight. He ran towards her with lightning speed but she moved revealing one of her own weapons. Then, you could hear a sudden noise of metal against metal. Both demons jumped back. Karuka had in her hands two daggers, about a foot long each, the one in her left hand was scuffed from blocking Hiei's katana, and her right had a stream of blood dripping off of it.  
  
"She got Hiei!" Kuwabara said staring in amazement.  
  
"Well no matter how fast Hiei can be, he'll still be at a disadvantage. She holds two daggers against Hiei's one katana; she can block with one hand and stab with the other."  
  
"Yeah, but she'll have to get close to him to do so, so he can just dodge her, right?" Asked Yusuke.  
  
"True, but if they do that, this fight may never end."  
  
"And that's why I'll do this," interrupted Karuka, while throwing the dagger in her right hand straight at Hiei. He dodged it and laughed.  
  
"Do you think that throwing your little daggers at me is going to kill me?" He looked at Karuka and she only smirked.  
  
"Now you only have one dagger, good luck trying to block and stab now!" He lunged at her in confidence that he had a better chance now but was brought back to reality at the feeling of blood oozing out of his stomach.  
  
"Ha! You fool! Didn't you see me turn that precious gem into a shadow? I have weapons plastered all over my body in shadow form! You have no idea how many daggers I have on me!" She only continued to laugh.  
  
Then, Yusuke was about to come in to help fight when Hiei said "Don't! This is my fight! The only way I'm letting you even touch her is if I die so I advise you to back away!" Yusuke was only stunned. He knew Hiei didn't like help in anything very much, but he was surprised at the way Hiei acted about Karuka.  
  
"Strange? I don't remember stabbing you in the brain! At this point you should get as much help as you can because you're gonna need it." Karuka slid Hiei off of her dagger and he stood up slowly.  
  
He had had enough. Hiei's Jagan eye began to glow and he threw off his own cloak to reveal two wounds, one on his arm and the other on his chest that was still bleeding but then stopped. Hiei was bright with fury and began to glow a red color.  
  
Seeing this Karuka went wide eyed, even she was surprised at his power. Quickly though she went back to her normal, intimidating gaze/glare. They both got into their own stances and flew at each other with incredible speed. The sound of their weapons hitting each other echoed throughout the empty museum. Kurama, Kuwabara, and Yusuke only watched as Hiei and Karuka were going at it.  
  
"I still can't believe that Hiei's fighting a girl."  
  
"Kuwabara, don't you remember her record? She is a very much wanted demon in the Makai." Said Kurama.  
  
"I still can't believe there are no security guards coming to help us out here."  
  
"I think she killed them all." Kuwabara said as the three boys stared at the 13 dead bodies on the floor, then returning their gaze to the fight after they heard a distinct yell, only belonging to Hiei.  
  
"Ha! One down and three to go!" Yelled Karuka as she held Hiei's katana in her hand, somehow taking it from him while they were in mid air. Hiei fell to the floor gasping for air and holding his stomach once again.  
  
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Yelled Yusuke at the top of his lungs as he ran over to Hiei who was now breathing more normal, but still in great pain.  
  
"Hiei! Are you O.K.?"  
  
"I'm... fine... detective." He replied.  
  
"No your not, Kurama get over here to heal him!" Kurama began to run back Hiei quickly stopped him with a few words.  
  
"No! Don't heal me! You need to fight her first or else she'll get her energy back and kill you all, I'm fine now go fight..." Hiei began to trail off as he slipped out of consciousness. All three fighters began to glow with fury as they stared at Karuka who was cleaning the katana in her hand.  
  
"Don't worry, he won't die, if I wanted him to I would have had to use a lot more energy, and I'm saving that for you." She said while pointing the bloody katana at Yusuke.  
  
"Fine then, let's fight." He said through gritted teeth.  
  
"No, I'll fight next, you save your energy." Kurama said while putting an arm in front of Yusuke.  
  
"O.K. Kurama, you can fight." He answered. He and Kuwabara backed up as Kurama stepped forward.  
  
"I believe this belongs to your friend." Karuka said while throwing the now clean katana at Kurama and catching it. Kurama walked back to where Hiei lay and set the katana next to him and walked back.  
  
"Let's begin, shall we?"  
  
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Shade-That was the longest chapter. I really suck at fight scenes so sorry about that but otherwise it was O.K.! Plus I made up the name of the gem, that's just crap falling out of my head so I had to put it somewhere.  
  
People-We're back! *throws fresh and rotten food*  
  
Shade- HEY! Did you know that the food that you're wasting on my bad writing can be given to orphans and refugees in Africa!?  
  
People- *guilty look on faces*  
  
Shade – That's what I thought!  
  
Little boy with guava in hand- Well if you could write better we wouldn't have to throw food at you  
  
People- Yahhhh *continue to throw food* (please R&R! Ow!) 


	6. dark whips of fury

Shade- Wow! Guavas are really good! Sorry for the delay, I've had no time to write! Anyways on with the story  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho  
  
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Chapter 6: dark whips of fury  
  
Kurama wasted no time in summoning his rose whip. He now knew that this girl was dangerous, and shouldn't be taken lightly, as his comrades do ever so often.  
  
"Rose Whip!" Yelled Kurama.  
  
Karuka was mad that the boy hadn't given her more time to recover. She didn't want to admit it, but Hiei would have killed her if he didn't underestimate her, and lose focus right near the end when she stole his katana.  
  
"Isn't that a little girly? A rose whip?" She said trying to irritate him and give her more time to recover.  
  
"Not once you see what he can do with it." Came a voice from behind Yusuke and Kuwabara. It was Hiei.  
  
"So you're awake so soon? I expected that." Said Karuka.  
  
"Hurry Kurama, before she gets to much energy back."  
  
Kurama nodded to his fallen friend and lashed out with the whip in his hand.  
  
"Rose Whip Strike!" Kurama yelled thrusting his whip at Karuka. (I don't know Kurama's attacks, sorry)  
  
The whip flew at Karuka with incredible speed, but Kurama went wide eyed at what happened next.  
  
Karuka extended what looked to be some sort of claw out of her right index finger, raised it high in the air and brought it down repeating this motion several more times, each time the claw like thing grew longer. And as she did this, she said "whip extend block!".  
  
The once one foot long claw type thing was now a full length whip coming out of her finger.  
  
"What?!" Kurama spoke as his whip was blocked by hers.  
  
"Yes I have a whip. Why are you surprised? Shouldn't you have seen it coming?"  
  
Kurama was still stunned at the fact her dull gray whip had blocked his when his had deadly rose thorns on it that could cut through practically anything.  
  
"Time to get real, if you're no match for my whip you're no match for me." Was what Karuka said as she raised her whip, that was now off her finger and in her hand, into the air.  
  
"Whip splitter attack!"  
  
Karuka's whip traveled through the air with nearly twice as much speed as Kurama's. She bent at the knees for more force and put her left hand on the museum floor. The whip traveled straight in front of Kurama's face down his middle and right before it hit the ground, Karuka pulled it back into her hand. The whip had just nearly missed Kurama's body.  
  
"Ha!" Said Yusuke. "You completely missed him!"  
  
"Yeah! I mean, you totally freaked us out when you stopped Kurama's whip dead in its tracks, but you couldn't even hit him square on!" Said Kuwabara.  
  
Yusuke waited for Hiei to slip in a remark but found him silent.  
  
"Come on Hiei, aren't you gonna make fun of that attack?" He asked, but Hiei lay waiting to see what would happen next knowing there was no way that she could have missed him.  
  
Yusuke and Kuwabara looked back just in time to watch Kurama fall to his knees, then his hands and chest.  
  
"What? But how? You didn't even hit him."  
  
"Do you think I was trying to? You should get your eyes checked out and maybe your ears also." Karuka said while the smirk on her face was growing even bigger, watching Kurama struggle on the floor.  
  
"My attack 'whip splitter' is not meant to hit the opponent, but to split the air right in front of him."  
  
The three boys' eyes widened along with Kurama's, even though they could not even come close to feeling his pain and suffrage.  
  
"But how is that possible?" Said Kuwabara as he was running to aid Kurama.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, for if you go into the area with no air, then you would be stuck and there would be no way for you to get back out until the air forms again."  
  
"Forms again?" Asked Hiei, taking his gaze away from Kurama for a moment.  
  
"Yes, the attack is only temporary. The air will form again allowing him to breath once more, but every time I use my whip, which is rarely, I just have to use that attack and watch my opponent squirm in agony and helplessness from others." She said with a giggle at the end showing the first sign of innocence since they entered the dark museum.  
  
"YOU BASTARD! How can you just watch someone dying in front of you and not do anything to help them!?" Screamed Yusuke.  
  
"Don't even ask me that! You don't know what I've seen in my life and I sure as hell know you haven't gone through such things in yours!" She yelled taking all the boys back with her sudden outburst of rage like emotion.  
  
Suddenly Kurama's body that was once spazing out of control lay limp and motionless, except for the light rising of his back as he took in the newly formed air.  
  
"Looks like the air has formed once again. Do you still wish to fight me?"  
  
Kurama stood up with an angry tone plastered on his face.  
  
'Dammit, with the few minutes that I couldn't breathe Karuka probably got back all the power she needed to defeat me. She is intelligent beyond my wildest imagination, covering her energy restore attack with watching my squirm for entertainment, quite clever of her. Oh well, there's nothing I can do now.'  
  
"Are you going to do something or should I kill you now?" That popped Kurama out of his thoughts and into defense, for what ever was coming next, was going to be big.  
  
Karuka chuckled an evil laugh as a smile crept its way onto her small, innocent looking face.  
  
'What is she planning?' Kurama thought before Yusuke too, interrupted his thoughts.  
  
"Why aren't you attacking her Kurama? Hurry, before it's too late."  
  
Suddenly something did come to him. Using one of his deadly seeds, he would have to use a fast working one though. He finally decided on one.  
  
Kurama quickly pulled a seed out of his hair hoping that Karuka hadn't seen. As the smirk on her face turned to a nauseating smile that split his soul in half. Quickly, before she had time to react, Kurama flicked the seed straight at Karuka. It hadn't missed.  
  
Karuka felt the seed hit her straight in the neck, she fell to the ground landing on her knees and her hand went straight to her neck to help the pain.  
  
"Yeah!" Said Yusuke who had the biggest smile on his face next to Hiei and Kuwabara.  
  
For the first time, Kurama smiled at a girls' pain. But suddenly that smile disappeared. Karuka stood up, not taking her eyes from the floor, it seemed that she was not hurt at all, they could tell from her light, yet sadistic laughter.  
  
"WHAT! BUT THAT'S IMPPOSSIBLE!" Said Yusuke with large eyes just as the three other boys'.  
  
'How could you have survived that?! That was my fastest working seed, you should be dead!"  
  
"Silly little boy aren't you?" Was what Karuka said as she stuck her hand straight into her neck and retrieved the seed that hadn't grown, opened or anything, it was just covered in blood.  
  
"You should know Kurama, being a plant expert as you are, a plant can't grow when there is no light to grow it!" She threw the seed to hit a pillar and it split the support beam and grew beautiful, deadly flowers.  
  
"I am a shadow demon, your plants will have no effect on me. And obviously, you are nothing with out them so this fight is over Kurama!"  
  
Kurama hated the way that she said his name, as if she owned every inch of his body, as if he were her slave.  
  
Karuka summoned her claws on her right hand.  
  
'I thought she was a shadow demon, how could she have claws?' Thought Kuwabara who was watching the strange fight from a new distance, because he was afraid of what was to happen next..  
  
Karuka began to make the same motion with her hand as before where she brought it up and down continuously to make five new whips coming out of her nails. Kurama only stared, wondering what would happen next, and he would have to since for some odd reason he couldn't move, he was focused on Karuka's eyes, as they had changed from her green to a yellow color in the middle of their fight.  
  
When Karuka finished, her five whips were on the ground since her small hand couldn't hold all five. Her energy began to glow again, but this time it was orange instead of black, like it was before she fought Hiei.  
  
Karuka jumped into the air nearly hitting the ceiling and her whips were trailing behind her.  
  
"DARK WHIPS OF FURY!" Was all that came out of her mouth before she swung her right hand around her front so the whips were hurtling down towards Kurama with orange energy surrounding them.  
  
Kurama fell back after the whips hit his helpless body and hit a near by wall. His clothes were torn and he was covered with blood, and motionless. He still couldn't have moved because he was still entranced in Karuka's yellow eyes. But even if he wasn't focused on her eyes, he still would have had a slim chance of missing all of her five whips.  
  
"NO!" Left the lips of all three boys not hit by the attack.  
  
Karuka landed as swift as a feather with a gleam in her now pale green eyes. And a smirk crossed her face.  
  
"Two down." Was all that needed to be said to set of Yusuke. He ran towards her but she disappeared and reappeared on the high chandelier.  
  
"I told you I would fight you last. Don't let wounded people get to you, or you'll be too sloppy a fighter, plus it's a weakness. The only way to survive in this heartless world is to care about yourself and only yourself."  
  
"YOU HAVE TO FIGHT ME NOW BECAUSE HE WON'T!!!!" Yusuke was furious as he pointed a finger at an equally angry Kuwa..  
  
"Oh? Why won't he fight me? Is he afraid?"  
  
"NO! I have a code that won't let me fight you! No matter how much I want to!"  
  
"If you're that weak against your own code then you shouldn't have one."  
  
Karuka jumped from her recent standing place right in front of Kuwabara and grabbed him by the collar and disappeared.  
  
Karuka began to beat Kuwabara a new code. She gave no mercy to him. She knew that this would waste her energy but she felt like scaring Yusuke, and make him thing twice about what he would decide to do to her.  
  
She threw him in the air and kicked him in the gut. She disappeared with him each time Yusuke tried to run and stop her. She was killing him for apparent reason. That made Yusuke and Hiei angry to see that she couldn't even keep from fighting a guy who she knew wouldn't fight back. She disgusted them.  
  
Then Karuka landed 20 feet in front of Yusuke with Kuwabara under her arm, she dropped him.  
  
"This weakling gives me no pleasure in hurting him. The fact that he won't fight back makes me feel like a traitor, but I do admire him for his strong will in not trying to hurt me. He does not deserve to die, so I will leave him be." Those words set back all who watched her brutally hurt him and cause him pain.  
  
"Now, it is time for the final fight." Karuka stood in front of Yusuke in her attack stance ready for the kill.  
  
"Finally." Was all Yusuke said as he stood in his attack stance too, ready to hurt her as much as she hurt his friends.  
  
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Shade- Sorry again for the crappy fight scenes but they're hard to write okay!? By the way, this is a little late, but I have no clue if I did that Tiger Princess thing in Japanese correct so if I was wrong please tell me and, if I made any other mistakes please tell me.  
  
~Shade 


	7. family secrets let out

Shade- I'm Baaaaaaaaaaack!  
  
People- Noooooooooooooooooooo!  
  
Shade-Shut up! Anyways, I'm updating this story because this is my favorite out of the others sooooooooo... PLEASE ENJOY!!!!!!!!  
  
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Chapter 7: Family secrets let out  
  
'Holy crap! His spirit energy is incredible. I knew I shouldn't have messed with the moron.'  
  
"Are you ready to fight or do I need to send an invitation?" Yusuke asked in an annoyed tone. Hiei and Kurama were the only others watching the talking between the two, Kuwabara was out cold.  
  
"No you don't. I'm used to barging in on occasions such as parties." She answered.  
  
"Then let's go!" Yusuke disappeared and gave Karuka a much needed blow to the face. She flew back, but landed on her feet.  
  
Blood trickled down Karuka's face from her lip but she took no notice as to check it besides whipping the red liquid from her chin.  
  
"It seems that I hit a nerve. You're a worthy fighter, besides that moron you tried to save." She said with an angry look of hatred on her face.  
  
'I thought Koenma said that she fought no mercy. If she did, she would have killed Kuwabara. She must have an honor code of her own.' Yusuke thought to himself while studying her moves.  
  
"You don't seem to be one to come out with a normal attack. You seem to fight first, think of the consequences later. You're a street fighter, am I correct?" She asked him.  
  
"Yep, but I do have a few little moves of my own up my sleeve that you probably won't be expecting." He answered.  
  
'If she thinks that I'm just a street fighter then I can surprise her with my spirit gun. But, she may already know that I do have an energy attack, seeing as how she said she would fight me last. I don't mean to sound conceited, but people always save the best for last.'  
  
"Are you ready, or should I send an invitation?" She asked, mocking what Yusuke had said earlier.  
  
"Nope, I have a hobby of barging in on parties myself." Then he flew.  
  
Karuka dodged him easily. Yusuke was no match for her speed. She had been running most of her life, and when she wasn't, she was killing. She learned nothing more then to do what she had to do to benefit from it herself. It was good advice, but with many loop holes.  
  
Karuka came behind to Yusuke's back and kicked it and flew around the other side and gave a good right hook to his gut. Yusuke fell to the floor. Again, Karuka landed like a feather, her feminine features deceived her bad intentions. She walked over to him.  
  
"Getting up? Maybe you should give up while you're behind, before this gets truly ugly." She sneered at him.  
  
To her small disbelief, he got up.  
  
"Whoever said that I was behind?"  
  
"The little voice in your head." She answered and backed away.  
  
Yusuke didn't want to make this last any longer. He raised his hand and formed it to look like a gun.  
  
"SPIRIT GUN!"  
  
Right before Karuka jumped, her eyes widened to the large amount of energy coming at her full speed.  
  
"Dammit!" Yusuke yelled as the dust cleared and Karuka was no where to be found.  
  
Kurama and Hiei knew not to interfere with Yusuke's fight unless they had to. They didn't want him to lose his concentration. Yusuke sensed where Karuka was and looked to his left. She was standing next to the exit door.  
  
"Are you leaving in the middle of a fight? You're not very honorable are you?"  
  
"No, I just like the breeze." She jolted to Yusuke exposing, once again, her claws.  
  
Yusuke dodged her strike, but barely. He landed next to Kurama.  
  
"How can she have claws if she's a shadow demon?" He asked.  
  
"Well Yusuke," Kurama gasped a little to get the words out "some shadow demons have the ability to mimic fighting abilities from people they kill. She probably got her claws from the tiger princess."  
  
"Well that explains a lot."  
  
"You better go back to the fight, before you waste anymore time talking with me."  
  
"Okay Kurama." He answered.  
  
"Just remember Yusuke, don't kill her." Yusuke didn't like that fact. He wished he could kill her.  
  
"Conversation time is over Yusuke." Her voice flooded the empty museum, cutting off the thoughts of every one.  
  
Yusuke knew that he had to find a way to beat her. Otherwise all would be lost.  
  
Yusuke noticed that Karuka never blocked his attack, as she had done Hiei's and Kurama's.  
  
'Maybe she can't block an energy attack.' He thought to himself, though making sure to guard his mind from her reading it, if she could.  
  
'If I can get her into an area where she can't dodge anywhere then I can hit her.' Yusuke thought greatly of this plan and tried to make it happen.  
  
He began to run backwards.  
  
"Where are you going Yusuke!?" Yelled Hiei who was leaning up against a wall. He didn't know what he was doing since he was unable to read his mind.  
  
Karuka unknowingly followed.  
  
"Running isn't going to get you anywhere, detective! Only further from death!" Karuka said while running after him.  
  
Since she was faster she ran in front of him, unknowingly again, into a corner.  
  
"Ha! Now you're trapped!" He yelled.  
  
Karuka knew full well what she ran into, and only went wide eyed.  
  
"SPIRIT GUN!" Yusuke yelled for a second time. A large blue ball of energy flew at Karuka.  
  
Then, a large bright light filled the room and no one could see anything. But what they did know was that Karuka had been defeated, and hopefully, not dead.  
  
When the light cleared, Yusuke could see the smiling faces of Hiei and Kurama.  
  
"Good thing Kuwabara wasn't awake to see that." Yusuke smiled through all the heavy breathing that he was doing.  
  
"Let's make sure that she isn't dead" Yusuke turned around but Karuka's body was no where to be found.  
  
"Where is she? I couldn't have destroyed her body, did I?" Yusuke began to worry.  
  
But worry turned to fear as an all menacing laugh entered his ears.  
  
'NO!' He thought to himself.  
  
"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" He said, this time out loud.  
  
"Oh no, it's very true."  
  
Karuka's body slowly came out of its shadow form into its normal.  
  
"BUT HOW?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"I knew you were luring me into a trap. Make it so I couldn't move, quite clever, but not clever enough. At the very last second I changed into my shadow form."  
  
'Crap, I only have two shots left!'  
  
"Your power is limited? Well what a relief! You almost scared me with those energy attacks, but since I can change into my shadow form, you're done for!" She yelled with her evil laugh.  
  
"Ure-meshi." Came a low voice from behind him, it was Kuwabara.  
  
"Kuwabara?!"  
  
"Yeah... I'm still alive. But by the way I'm feeling, she must have kept beating me up after I was unconscious." He said.  
  
'Well that explains why he didn't even defend himself...'  
  
* Light bulb *  
  
Yusuke had found the answer to beating Karuka.  
  
"Are you done conversing? I really do feel like killing something now."  
  
He stopped to say something that he remembered Koenma told him he had to say for every time he was on a case to sound more like a detective.  
  
"Karuka Mokushi, you are under arrest for accounts of theft and murder and the assassination of Ruka the princess of all tigers."  
  
"WHAT?!" She yelled back in disbelief of what he said.  
  
"What don't you get? The thefts, the murders or the assassination?"  
  
"I never killed Ruka. Why would I kill my own mother?" The boys gasped.  
  
"She's your mother?!" Yusuke asked in COMPLETE disbelief to what was fed through his ears.  
  
"Yes she's my mother! And I never killed her!"  
  
Yusuke knew that this would take a little while, so he took his chance while Karuka was in shock.Yusuke ran towards Karuka in hot pursuit of his chance.  
  
Yusuke was right in front of Karuka when he yelled...  
  
"SHOT GUN!"  
  
Of course, like the two previous times, Karuka dodged it and but still at a lose with the whole 'mother' thing. Then, Yusuke reappeared right in front of Karuka. Since she was still moving, she couldn't dodge, and she was on her bad side. Yusuke got in as many shots and kicks to her back as he was allowed. His final blow was to her head. Karuka's limp body fell to the ground. She didn't move.  
  
She was unconscious.  
  
"Finally. And to make sure she doesn't come around anytime soon...  
  
'SHOT GUN!" Yusuke fired his last ball of energy at Karuka and it hit her square on.  
  
Now, FOR SURE, Karuka was defeated. (A/N really!)  
  
Kurama and Hiei had found their composure and found the strength to stand up. Kuwabara stayed sitting on the ground since he had only woken a little earlier and had yet to gain his strength back.  
  
"That looked brutal Uremeshi." said Kuwabara.  
  
"Well at least she's not kickin' anymore right?"  
  
"Yes, Yusuke, that is a good thing. Now let's find a way to get that gem." Said Kurama.  
  
"I can't believe that SHE is the daughter of a princess!" said Yusuke.  
  
"'Was' the daughter of a princess, remember." Hiei said.  
  
Three of the four boys walked over to Karuka's seemingly dead body, but knew she was still alive by the faint rise of her back.  
  
"So how do we get the gem?" Yusuke asked while poking the girl, ignoring the mother issue.  
  
"Well the gem, we know, is on her body in shadow form, but we don't know how to get it off." said Hiei, wincing a bit from a sudden pain in his stomach.  
  
"Well yes. Now that I think about it, only the demon themselves can change an item from shadow to normal so it looks like there's nothing we can do till she wakes." said Kurama.  
  
"But then she'll totally try to kill us again!" yelled Kuwabara from behind them all.  
  
"Then we'll have to take her back to the spirit world I guess." said Kurama.  
  
"Who's gonna carry her?"  
  
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Shade- GOD FINALLY! I am so sorry to those of you who waited so long for this chapter, if there were any at all. My computer got screwed up and I had to retype some of it AND go back to insert the most important part becuz I forgot after ignoring my writing for the whole day *breath* yeah!  
  
One last thing: IF YOU DON'T REVIEW I WILL HAVE NO CLUE IF ANYONE LIKES IT OR NOT!  
  
Which means I don't know if I should update or not so please review! 


	8. unlocking dreams part I

Shade- Sup! Okay, I'm cutting the nice crap. If my readers don't review then I will never know if anyone likes the god forsakin' story! Who knows... I might accidentally delete it or something. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...  
  
PLEASE REVIEW! (Remember... I said please) (most of the chappie will be a dream/flashback so I'm just warning you)  
  
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Chapter 8: unlocking dreams Part I  
  
"Why do I have to do it?!" Hiei asked furiously.  
  
"Because Hiei, you're less hurt because you've had the most time to recover, and you're the fastest." Said Kurama as Hiei made an angry face at him for answering.  
  
"Just do it Hiei!" Yelled Yusuke getting angered at the time they were wasting, Karuka could wake up at any moment.  
  
"Hn, fine I'll do it." He answered coldly.  
  
Hiei walked over to Karuka's body. As he bent down to pick her up he was somehow blocked by a force field.  
  
"What's wrong Hiei?" Kurama asked.  
  
"I can't get near her, something is holding me back." He answered.  
  
Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara, who now could stand up, walked over to her only to be stopped as well.  
  
Kurama had his thinking face on and went behind Karuka. He kneeled to the ground and reached his hand to Karuka's gold chain that she was wearing. Then he pulled it off to reveal the shadow amulet.  
  
"Here we are. We couldn't get near her because the shadow amulet's power was holding us back, seeing us as a threat since we were fighting her." He said.  
  
"How could a necklace have energy to hold us back?" Kuwabara asked. He still didn't know full well what the signifigence of the amulet was.  
  
"The spirits and souls of past possessors are trapped inside, they see us as a threat to Karuka, there for, a threat to their people." Hiei answered.  
  
"They use their own power to block outsiders who give trouble to Karuka, though never against her will. Usually, people could hold back their power, but since she's knocked out, her will can't come into play." Kurama finished as Yusuke and Kuwabara slowly started to understand.  
  
"So you mean that a bunch of dead people are still taking care of her?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Yes, her ancestors probably did the same with her father." Kurama answered.  
  
"I know this stupid necklace thing is important and all, but if we don't get Karuka back to spirit world she's gonna wake up. And I think she's gonna be pissed to see her one possession that keeps her people alive in the hands of someone who tried to kill her." Yusuke said.  
  
"We weren't trying to kill her Urameshi." Said Kuwabara.  
  
"Do you think she knows that Kuwabara?" Yusuke answered back.  
  
"Yes, usually when a gang of four fighters follow you around until they finally attack you shows someone that they might be trying to be murdered." Hiei put in to the quarrel.  
  
"Then let's just go already, okay?"  
  
"Fine." Hiei bent down and picked Karuka up and held her bridal style (A/N as they do a lot) and ran out of the building into the forest.  
  
*~ forest ~*  
  
The sun shone through the trees as Hiei ran along the forest floor. By now, seeing as the fight took a little while, it was morning.  
  
'I don't see how this baka onna could have beaten me. How could her maneuvers be faster than mine? She stole the sword right out of my hand. I underestimated her.' Hiei thought to himself, pissed that he had to be the one to carry her.  
  
Suddenly Karuka began to stir. Hiei stopped, half wanting her to wake up, for his second shot, and half for her to stay asleep, so he didn't have his second shot.  
  
He looked down at her face and it showed the first, pure trace of horror from her. She had her head against Hiei's chest and he winced a bit, but let it slid. She grabbed onto his cloak as if it was the one thing that could save her from falling into a pool of emotions.  
  
Watching her, Hiei realized that she was having a dream, so he jumped into a tree, laid her against himself, and took off his bandana for the assistance of his Jagan.  
  
*~ Karuka's dream/nightmare/flashback ~* (A/N this won't seem like a dream so... yeah)  
  
The first thing that was seen in the dream was a dojo, beautifully made, and by hand too. There were screams coming from inside, though not of terror, but of pain.  
  
The picture went to inside the dojo. There were four young boys, two being twins, then a man by a bed side and in the bed was a woman having a baby. Soon enough there were screams of a crying child to start where the woman had left off when she ceased in the screaming as the baby had been delivered by the father.  
  
"It's a girl! It's a girl!" The man shouted as the face of the woman lit up with excitement.  
  
"We have a sister!" One of the boys yelled as his and his brothers faces lit up just as bright as their mothers.  
  
"What will you name her?" The man asked as the four boys ran up to the bed to look at the tiny infant.  
  
"Karuka." She answered. She obviously had thought about it.  
  
"That's a beautiful name Ruka." The father answered back.  
  
(A/N Just for the record, I thought of the name Ruka before the whole 'defensive nurse holding back Hiei and Genkai against their will' thing and I didn't want to change the name because of it so the woman is not Ruka from the series)  
  
Hiei noticed that the man was the same from the picture he had seen before in Koenma's office.  
  
The scene suddenly changed to a few years later. Karuka was in a black kimono watching her brothers practice their fighting with their father. Karuka longed to learn how to fight like them and she actually trained in secret when the rest were sleeping.  
  
The mother, Ruka, was no where to be found, and Karuka felt alone, as she did a lot. One of the boys walked over to Karuka as he saw her.  
  
"Hello Karuka, are you enjoying watching us?" Her brother asked.  
  
Karuka nodded, "Yes I am Tadashi, but I wish I could fight with you." She said.  
  
Tadashi was the only one in the family that really understood her, besides her father and mother.  
  
"But you don't know how to fight." He said back to her tiny child face. Karuka still had her yellow tiger eyes. They would change to her father's green soon enough, like it had done with her four brothers.  
  
"I do too! I've been training Tadi." Karuka said. She had a nickname for him.  
  
"You have?"  
  
She nodded again. Karuka sat down where she was and sighed.  
  
"I wish mom was here." She said.  
  
"Me too, Karuka, me too."  
  
Once again the scene changed, and Karuka was older. She now started her training as a fighter when her father saw that she was still awake and pulverizing a tree into the ground. He knew that since she was his youngest child she had to learn how to fight, even if she was 'daddy's little girl', all for the sake of the shadow race.  
  
Karuka had long enough hair to go into a pony tail that ended at her top back, she still wore black as most shadow demons do. Her brothers looked the same besides their hair being the father's blonde color to Karuka's and her mother's light brown.  
  
Karuka and her four brothers were sitting on the front porch of their dojo with their father waiting for their mother's arrival.  
  
"When is she going to get here?"  
  
"Be patient Rien, she'll be here soon." Answered the oldest brother named Pyro.  
  
"I think I see her!" Cruyo said. Ten eyes darted around everywhere to find the woman but only two prevailed.  
  
"Mom!" Came Karuka's voice breaking any concentration any other had.  
  
"Hello Karuka! How is my little angel?" She asked.  
  
"Reeking havoc on our poor fighting grounds dear." Truyo, the father, said.  
  
"Yeah, she's a natural born fighting machine. So how long can you stay?" Tadashi spoke out, quickly changing the subject from Karuka to their mother.  
  
"Not long I'm afraid. The palace is under dire need of attention." Those simple words broke the hearts of all five children who heard it.  
  
"But we haven't seen you in nearly a year. Why can't the stupid palace just wait while we spend time with our own mother!" Pyro had outbursts like that a lot.  
  
"Or why can't we live with mom in the palace?" Asked Karuka.  
  
That was a very tender subject with the family. The tiger kingdom was very strict with outsiders, even if they had half blood. In the monarchy of felines, you had to be a full fledged tiger demon, otherwise, an outcast.  
  
"Sorry that can't happen Karuka."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"You'll know when you're older."  
  
Karuka pouted, but couldn't stay mad at her own mother, she rarely got to see her ever. Once every year on average.  
  
"Now," Ruka said trying to break the awkward silence, "who wants to play in the stream?"  
  
Only four hands went up, belonging to Karuka, Rien, Cruyo and Tadashi. Pyro knew why they couldn't live in the palace, it was because they were half shadow demon, and if anyone found out that Ruka the princess of all tigers, heired to the thrown, mated with that of a lowly outsider, Ruka would be killed.  
  
Though, Truyo didn't mind rarely seeing his mate, he loved his children with every fiber of his being, and trusted his eldest son to take care of the rest when he was gone. In fact, he was gone a lot, just like their mother. The kids learned to strive for themselves, which would prove to be a great thing for their future.  
  
"I know why father, it's because we're different." Pyro looked at his father with his equally infatuating green eyes showing him he knew the truth. Truyo was Pyro's biggest role model, and he wished to be just like him one day, but Pyro also knew it was his fathers fault he was different, he was the reason for being shadow.  
  
Another scene change occurred as Hiei let the information sink in, of how she rarely saw her mother, and her father's heritage being the reason she couldn't safely live with her own mother.  
  
Karuka was training with Tadashi. She had orange light covering her finger tips, up until ten, one foot long claws came out of them.  
  
"Okay Karuka, now show me what weapons you can make with those. Use your shadow energy to manipulate them." He told her. She obeyed by nodding.  
  
On her left hand she made a spear, a dagger, an arrow, a bow and a bomb. On her right hand she made a whip, a throwing star, a club, an ax and kept one claw normal because that could be used as a weapon too.  
  
"Good, but when did you learn how to make that?" He asked, pointing to the sphere shaped bomb.  
  
"About a week ago." She answered.  
  
"What does it do?" He asked again, not knowing its purpose and about to poke it with Karuka's spear.  
  
"Don't!" She yelled, holding his arm back.  
  
"It's a bomb Tadi! That could have blown us both up!"  
  
"Hehe, oops." He said, while rubbing the back of his head smiling.  
  
"How good of a bomb is it?" He asked wanting to know its power.  
  
"I don't know, I haven't found a good place to set it off without starting a big trouble."  
  
"Oh." Tadashi said, confirming that he understood.  
  
"Where are the other ones?" He asked.  
  
Karuka held out her right hand and two balls seemed to come out of the palm of her hand to sit with each other.  
  
"I kept them with me so no one else would find them. I'm afraid of what they might do, if they go off it could show that we are here and blow mom's cover." Those words sat with Tadashi for a few moments, letting him know how Karuka was dealing with the situation with their rarely seen mother.  
  
He wished that she could just be truthful, and be proud that her mate was a shadow demon and that her children were of his decent too. Sadly, that would never happen.  
  
The final change went from training with Tadashi and Karuka to watching a master of shadow at work, their father.  
  
"Dad's been acting weird lately." Said Rien to Cruyo as Karuka walked up behind them.  
  
"Doesn't he have a shadow fight tonight?" She asked.  
  
"Yeah sis, but he's never taken one this seriously, even though he should." Answered Cruyo.  
  
"I wonder what's up." Rien said.  
  
"Maybe we should follow him and find out." Pyro had startled them a bit as he walked to stand next to Rien.  
  
"Dad always told us NEVER to follow him to a shadow fight." Rien said.  
  
"Yeah, after what happened last time." Cruyo put in.  
  
"I know, but Karuka hasn't seen one before, and unless we get another baby brother or sister she gonna have to know what one is like once she gets the amulet." Pyro said changing the minds of them all.  
  
"I guess you're right. Let's go tell Tadi." Karuka said, using Tadashi's nick-name in front of them.  
  
They laughed a little at the name, even though they all had nick-names from Karuka too. Pyro's was Py-ry (Pie-rye), Rien's was Ray, and Cruyo's was Cro (Crow).  
  
*~ late at night ~*  
  
The five shadow tigers pretended to sleep as they could hear their father getting ready to leave. To their surprise, he actually started to talk to them.  
  
"Good bye my sweet children. Do not cause the world to much pain. I leave here now as your father, your mentor and your ally." The sliding door made an opening sound, and then a closed one.  
  
Pyro sat up wondering what his father had meant. Pyro saw his father as being invincible and didn't see that true hero's can fall at any moment.  
  
The rest of the kids got out of bed all ready to go. They had heard what he said and wondered the same thing as their brother.  
  
"Come on. Let's go." Pyro said before they could discuss what their father had said.  
  
Pyro and the rest walked out of the dojo and followed their father. They went so far that Truyo had led them out of the palace forest. They had only been outside of the forest twice before, and their memories of it began to come back to them.  
  
"Keep quiet you guys. We don't want dad to know we're following him." Pyro said.  
  
They all kept walking along the asphalt ground which they had forgotten about. They saw their father walk into an old worn out warehouse. They ran up to the dirty window and peered inside to see their father standing tall and another demon, about their father's height, standing on the other side.  
  
"I'm here, so let's get started." Truyo had an angered face on.  
  
"Wait, wait wait. Before we get started, let me ask you the risks here okay?" The slender demon asked.  
  
Truyo only huffed.  
  
"If I win, I get the precious shadow amulet," he sort of drooled when he said that, "and you are forced to die, and if you win, you keep the necklace and I die, correct?"  
  
Truyo, again refraining to speak, nodded to his question.  
  
"Then let's begin, shall we?" He said.  
  
"That's weird." Rien said.  
  
"What is it Ray?" Karuka asked.  
  
"Well Karuk," he said with the nick-name the boys gave her, "This isn't a traditional shadow fight. The demon father is fighting against must not know the true way to battle." Rien answered.  
  
"What a wet towel, dad can beat this guy easily." Pyro put in.  
  
"Well, you won't get to see what a real shadow fight looks like, but you do get to see dad kick this guy's butt." Tadashi said.  
  
They looked in once more to the fight now in progress. It looked like Truyo had the upper hand, but the truth was that he was being strung along, and he knew it. He just couldn't do anything about it.  
  
As the fighting time passed the one hour mark, the children looked confident in their father. But that all changed when a shrill, menacing laugh drew louder from the limp body of the opponent.  
  
He stood and began an attack so fiercely careless that it is unexplainable to comment on, all you can do is watch, and dear god hope whoever's on the other end of it has the least painless death that you can.  
  
The whole warehouse grew dark, then BURST with flames all around them! The technique was the demons own, made by his very soul which he gave up to conquer opposing truths and do-gooders. The name he spoke didn't suit the attack at all, but that was to be expected, for what can something so horrible be put under a single name.  
  
'Souls of the enslaved damned in the fire of chaotic hearts'  
  
The five onlookers stared and cried to watch their role model and hero slowly and painfully die on the concrete ground as his very soul was being sucked out of his body.  
  
His screams could be heard for miles, but the only listeners that mattered were watching the whole ordeal through a half broken window that concealed their cries of terror from their dying father's ears.  
  
Great lights grew from below to overtake Truyo's body and take him down to hell. All that was left behind was the shadow amulet. The demon walked over as the fires of hell died down and he picked it up.  
  
"Finally, you are mine. I shall be known as the greatest shadow demon of all time for beating an original family possessor of the shadow amulet." The nasty little grin the demon had on fell to the floor as the amulet seemingly disappeared.  
  
Outside, Karuka's large green eyes grew white as she had watched the death of her father. She did not notice the formation of the shadow amulet around her neck. She cried out the word 'father' but only got out 'fath' as she felt Pyro's hand cover her mouth and her body being picked up. Her eyes stayed wide and didn't close till she was back at the dojo as she started to ball out for her father back.  
  
She tilted her head to one side and saw the scared faces of Cruyo, Rien and Tadashi. She looked to the other side and saw the meanest most real face on Pyro's, that of hate, and disgust. She paid no attention to them and kept crying till she fell asleep where she knelt.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Shade- Really long, I know, but it could have been longer! I'll finish the dream/flashback in the next chapter cuz it's so long. Karuka's life really sucked huh?  
  
*~ PLEASE REVIEW ~* 


	9. unlocking dreams part II

Shade- Hiya! Time for the continuation of the 8th chapter unlocking dreams part I with unlocking dreams part II! First of all, I would like to thank my reviewers! This will be short!  
  
Unispaps: Hehehe... I know you reviewed my first chapter and this is a little late, but I now decided to thank my reviewers! So thank you for calling me a talented writer, I need encouragement cuz NO ONE IS REVIEWING! So thank you!  
  
Kyouj1n: I agree with you, I TOO am a little surprised that no one has reviewed the story (not to sound conceited or nothing) and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story!  
  
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Chapter 9: Unlocking dreams part II  
  
Hiei drew out of Karuka's dream for a moment and came out wide eyed. He had never seen an attack so sinister as to take your own soul from your body. Quickly, he went back in.  
  
*~ dream/flashback ~*  
  
Karuka had woken up slightly forgetting what had happened but when she did she sat still unable to believe it was true. She felt something around her neck and saw that it was the shadow amulet. She had no care of how it got there, just why it did, the death of her father.  
  
She looked around to see all her brothers gone, they all had slept outside because the inside of their home smelled of their father. She couldn't bare the tension anymore, she ran to the stream that ran near their dojo only to see her four brothers.  
  
She said nothing and sat down next to them.  
  
*~ one month later ~*  
  
A blazing fire was seen, and on the other side you could see Karuka, she had a look of crude hatred, one she never once wore before. Her brothers and mother were standing next to her watching the fire die down a bit, but still keep up its large glow.  
  
"Why are we doing this anyways?" Karuka asked her mother in a harsh tone.  
  
"To respect your father." She answered plainly.  
  
"It's only respectful if he's in the fire, doing this only respects the fires that took his soul!" Karuka ran from the scene in near tears but kept them in as to not show weakness.  
  
She ran for a long time. She didn't know where she was running to, she just kept running. Finally when Karuka stopped she slightly recognized where she was. It was a cliff that her father took her to every full moon, as to gaze it in its largest looking appearance. There was another reason that Karuka watched the moon, but she didn't tell anyone, it was a secret with her mother.  
  
She sat for many hours, but before Hiei would have gotten bored the scene changed.  
  
It was inside the dojo, and by the way everyone was acting, it seemed to be a couple months since the incident.  
  
Karuka was still distant though. Her happy warming smile wasn't there anymore, her witty nick-names for her brothers were never spoken, she never spoke about her father, and it was too hard for her. She thought that she had it hard, but the truth was; Pyro was taking it harder, much harder.  
  
Pyro had been gone for three days but no one seemed to care. They knew he would come back; it was just a matter of time.  
  
Their mother had made an excuse to being gone for at least a year, to be with her children. Now that she saw them more often, she wished that she was there more for them, especially her one daughter.  
  
Karuka had never been used to being around another woman. She was always with a man, either one of her brothers, or her father. She was a real tomboy, in fact, it was only 7 months ago that she beat her brother Rien in a fight.  
  
Karuka had no womanly traits, and when her mother ever tried to do something with her that was "motherly" she ignored it. The only thing that she could do with her mother was practice training. In fact, her mother was a very skilled fighter, for a tiger demon at least.  
  
Karuka was in the corner of the sitting room staring into nothing. Tadashi was with their mother talking about something Karuka didn't really care about. And the twins, Cruyo and Rien, were with each other in another corner.  
  
Suddenly a loud THUMP was heard outside.  
  
Pyro came in through the door and only their mother took notice.  
  
"Oh Pyro, I was so worried. Where have you been? Are you okay? How is-" Ruka was abruptly cut short. The next thing that was heard was a piercing scream, not of terror but of pain.  
  
Karuka's head shot up just in time to watch her mother fall to the floor, blood spewing out of her abdomen.  
  
"PYRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Came the voice of Cruyo who stood up about to run to his mother.  
  
"SHUT UP!" Screamed a slightly scared voice from Pyro, but no one really took notice of that.  
  
Pyro shoved a bloody dagger into Cruyo's head and Karuka could see his eyes turn white, which meant they rolled into the back of his head, dead.  
  
Karuka screamed while she stood up, but still unable to move from her corner of the room. All the while Pyro walked toward Rien and embedded the dagger into his flesh. Karuka screamed and cried repeatedly but to no avail as to stop Pyro's rampage.  
  
The first stab didn't kill Rien though. He came behind Pyro to try and stop him, but was stabbed in the head just like his twin who died on the spot moments before.  
  
Karuka's legs were nailed to the floor, or at least that's what it felt like, she still hadn't moved from her spot, and only watched her brother kill her family.  
  
"NO! TADASHI!" Tadashi's poor limp body slid off the one foot dagger and his blood joined his mother's and other brother's on the floor of the sitting room. Karuka stared blankly as Pyro walked toward her, stepping over their mother's corpse in the process.  
  
"WHY?!" Karuka yelled, Pyro said something, but it wasn't an answer.  
  
"You see what happens when you love someone!?" He said.  
  
What are you talking about?"  
  
"When you love someone and get close to them, they only let you down and die!" He said through clenched teeth.  
  
"Never let someone get close to you because they only die in the end leaving you alone! Loving makes you weak Karuka! Loving puts a hole in your heart and a bleeding wound on you soul!"  
  
Those words surprised Karuka and were stuck in her head. But before she could react, he said more.  
  
"See what it does to you? It makes you crazy! It made me crazy, AND NEVER LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU, or else you become just like me!" He said in a tone of voice that Karuka never heard and never wanted to hear again. At the end he lightened his voice to a whispering falsetto that scared her immensely. Before she could react again, Pyro shoved her to the ground and began stabbing her in the back; all the while she repeated the word 'why' over and over again.  
  
When he was done and declared her dead, he stood up and looked at his surroundings and smiled. Little did he know that Karuka was in fact still alive, just unconscious.  
  
He left the dojo smiling at his accomplishment and dropped the dagger to the floor. But kept in his boasting, he could not hear the light whimpering of Karuka, or her tears hit the floor and mix with the blood beneath her. Because of the loss of blood, Karuka fell unconscious again with fifteen dagger wounds bleeding from her back.  
  
Everything went black and Hiei used this time to think about all of this. Again, he was wide eyed. Before he thought that he would miss anything, he reentered.  
  
He couldn't really tell, but it looked like it was later in the evening, even though the scene didn't seem to change.  
  
Karuka's eyes slowly opened, and what she saw reminded her of her sorry life and situation. Four of her family members lay dead, and yet she was the one who was spared.  
  
Karuka stood up and felt enormous pain from her back and fell straight to the floor onto her knees... she could feel the blood between her toes. Though even with all of this, Karuka managed to keep a sleek emotionless face.  
  
This was the most mature that Karuka had ever been, seeing as how she had witnessed the majority of her family left, be killed by her own flesh and blood. She stumbled into another room of the dojo and retrieved some bandages to wrap her back in.  
  
This process took a good twenty minutes because every time she moved wrong she screamed out in pain. When she was done she cleaned up the mess of blood that was on the floor, missing the dagger Pyro had used because it fell under a low table. When she was done she looked at her family and only huffed.  
  
She picked each one up one by one and the took them somewhere but the scene went black each time Karuka would go somewhere, as if Karuka didn't want anyone to know where she put them, not even remind her own self.  
  
Karuka walked back into the dojo and went straight to her father's room, which she had avoided going into since the 'incident'.  
  
She walked towards a cabinet and opened it, it revealed many weapons. She took the majority of them and transformed them to shadow form to stash away on her body. When she picked up a sword she looked at herself in it. She had dried blood in her beautiful brown hair. Seeing this, she made no hesitation as to cut her hair right then and there. The stiff hair fell to the floor and Karuka ignored looking at its blood.  
  
She transformed the sword into its shadow form and draped herself in a cloak.  
  
Walking from the dojo, Karuka looked back with freshly changed slender yellow eyes. The only time she got her yellow eyes was in fights and when she was angered.  
  
She never went inside to look for the dagger that was used to kill her mother and three of her brothers. She saw it as tainted, and the fact that it was her dagger, with her name carved into it from her father, taking felt like betrayal.  
  
"Bastard." Was the last thing Karuka said before leaping into the trees and disappearing.  
  
Slowly leaving Karuka's mind, Hiei knew that Karuka meant her brother Pyro, for he wondered too, how someone could go mentally insane as to kill the rest of his own family.  
  
(officially out of the dream which is now over)  
  
"Woah." Left Hiei's lips as it seemed a life story had been summed up to him, when it was only a single childhood, only... the beginning.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Shade- Yes! The dream is finally done!  
  
People- *on the verge of crying*  
  
Shade- Oh yeah, the dream sucked for Karuka, hehe... sorry  
  
People- WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  
  
Shade- Please don't cry! Remember Karuka isn't real! It's only a story!  
  
People- Oh yeah! ^_^o But the dream was still a horrible thing to have happened! .  
  
Shade- buts that's the whole reason Karuka is so cold and stuff. Anyways, before they cause a riot please review you handsome/beautiful you! 


	10. Real answers

Shade- I'm back! MUWAHAHAHAHA! I'm a little to into that... anyways! I thank you all for the reviews! In fact, if I could see you right now I'd kiss you! Okay... maybe not kiss you, but say thanks, I'm mean that would be the least I could do. Well, the dream is now over and I know it was horrible for Karuka but it will sort of tie in soon, plus it shows why Karuka is such a cold person. Okay, enough of my babbling... ON WITH THE STORY!  
  
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Chapter 10: Real answers  
  
Hiei let all of that info sink in before he looked down at Karuka. She was sweating and breathing hard. Then Hiei heard distant voices.  
  
"Come on Kuwabara! It's not like she's dead!"  
  
"I know Urameshi but it's just the fact that you fought a girl."  
  
"So what, I've fought them before."  
  
'Oh no. I better get out of here, the fox is sure to sense my energy if he gets to close.' Hiei stood up with Karuka in his arms and jumped from tree to tree trying to get away from the rest of them, as to avoid questions of why he stopped. He didn't want to explain the dream just yet, he wanted to take time.  
  
"Hm?" Kurama looked to the left to a tree to watch the branch near the middle move slightly.  
  
"What is it Kurama?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Oh," Kurama turned his head to face the totally clueless two, "Nothing."  
  
*~ Koenma's office ~*  
  
Hiei had gotten to the office a half an hour before the rest, which he felt was good timing as to not raise suspicion. He laid Karuka down on the couch right as Yusuke and the rest walked in. He quickly moved to the window sill.  
  
"Now you see Hiei? That wasn't all that bad now was it?" Yusuke asked him. Hiei didn't reply.  
  
"I hope that you got the amulet Yusuke." Koenma popped out of no where and scared the crap out of Yusuke.  
  
"GEEZ KOENMA! YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!" He said.  
  
"Well, if you have to take care of business I would appreciate it if you took care of that in the restroom." Koenma said.  
  
"Uh, Koenma, we have the shadow amulet right here." Kurama said, holding up the necklace.  
  
"Good, that can go in my father's vault along with the other three artifacts. Ogre, take Miss Mokushi and bring her to her cell before she wakes up."  
  
"No." Hiei said quietly.  
  
"Excuse me Hiei?" Koenma asked.  
  
"I said no."  
  
"No what shorty?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Don't take her to jail, she is innocent." He said.  
  
"What? Just because she said she never killed her mother?" Yusuke asked this time.  
  
"Hiei, we have proof of her killing- wait a minute? Her mother? Who's her mother?" Koenma asked.  
  
"Ruka, the princess of all tigers." Yusuke said.  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"Yeah, it turns out that she's half tiger demon along with her shadow."  
  
"Well, that is some information that I didn't want to know." Koenma said sadly.  
  
"Why?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"Because, it is customary that in the tiger kingdom, whoever kills a royalty is executed. And since Karuka is the sole possessor of the shadow amulet and has no offspring, we are forced to kill the shadow race." Koenma said in a low, mourning voice.  
  
"Is that legal?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Of course it's legal you idiot!" Koenma yelled now going from mournful to frustrated.  
  
"Never in the history of Makai has this ever happened before! I mean, we have had to wipe out a great amount of parts of demon races but never the WHOLE race! Plus, the shadow demons are quite important to living, they hold the majority balance of darkness in our world of light and dark. If they are gone light may take over the three worlds, and there are still demons out there that need the dark to live, and this way they only get some of it which means that they die too!"  
  
"Why can't you just let her live then?" Kuwabara asked.  
  
"Because now that it has been confirmed that she killed Ruka the tiger kingdom will want her dead and if we don't kill her they'll take our hides!"  
  
"Don't worry Koenma, you don't have to kill her." Hiei said after being silent for too long.  
  
"What in hell are you talking about Hiei! Why do you keep saying that Karuka is innocent?"  
  
"Because she is. She didn't kill her mother... her brother did."  
  
"And what proof do you have?"  
  
"I should ask you the same question. All you're basing this girl's life on is the fact that it was her dagger with the princess' blood on it. And now that we know that Karuka is her daughter we see that anyone else could have killed her because Karuka was living in the dojo you found it in with her mother."  
  
"Impossible, Ruka lived in the palace." Koenma said.  
  
"Maybe you should check the tiger kingdom's history before killing the shadow race."  
  
"Fine I will! As long as it can save the shadows! Ogre? Get me all the information on the tiger kingdom from fifteen years before Princess Ruka's death and fifteen years after!" Koenma yelled.  
  
"Yes, Lord Koenma." The blue ogre ran out of the room, arms flailing about.  
  
*~ 5 minutes later ~*  
  
"Here's the information sir." The ogre came into the room with five large stacks of paper.  
  
"Hm," Koenma said looking at the paper the ogre put on his desk. "Maybe I should have had it be ten years instead of fifteen."  
  
"Lord Koenma, I do think that you should start looking for some useful information so you can prove that Karuka is innocent.  
  
"Yes, yes I will." Koenma practically dive into the paper stacks and popped back up with a few papers in hand.  
  
"Well aren't you going to help me!?" Koenma shouted to the rest of the group.  
  
The rest helped out except for Hiei.  
  
"Here's something!" Botan said aloud.  
  
"What is it Botan? Is it something that can prove Karuka's innocence so I don't have to kill the shadows?" Koenma yelled from the middle of the pile till his face popped out of the top and peered down at Botan.  
  
"Well maybe sir. It says here that Princess Ruka had a 9 month leave of absence with no reason tied to it." She said.  
  
"Well how does that help me?!" Koenma yelled, diving back into the pile.  
  
"But wait sir. It also says that two years later she had another 9 month leave of absence where no one knew of her where a bouts, and four years later the same."  
  
"Yeah, and I got something like that too." Yusuke said with a few papers on his head. "This says that one year after her second 9 month thing she had one more 9 months leave and five years after that another 9 months leave. What's up with this 9 months thing geez."  
  
"Well I don't see how that can prove Karuka's innocence."  
  
"What if you get information on Karuka's father and see if anything matches up." Kurama suggested.  
  
"Great idea Kurama! Ogre, get info on Truyo Mokushi!" Koenma ordered.  
  
"But I just put that away sir!"  
  
"Well get it back out here or do you want the world run by happy go lucky light pansies forever and ever?!"  
  
"No sir. I'll go get it now!" Ogre ran out of the office again and brought back more paper.  
  
*~ 20 minutes later (Karuka is still out and the rest excluding Hiei who knows the truth are still looking) ~*  
  
"Hey, I think I got something." Kuwabara said.  
  
*sigh* "Yes Kuwabara?" Botan had gotten tired of looking through the same papers over and over again.  
  
"Right around this Truyo guys death, Ruka had another absence."  
  
"So?"  
  
"Don't you think that's weird?"  
  
"Maybe, Kuwabara, if it corresponds at all to this. This says that Ruka had stretch marks after her first 9 month 'vacation' similar to pregnancy stretch marks and they got worse each time after an absence. And-" Kurama finished what Botan would have said.  
  
"Pregnancy lasts nine months which means that each time Ruka left it was because she was pregnant with a child that must have been outside a full tiger demon heritage or she would have never left at all. Karuka was telling the truth about her Ruka being her mother."  
  
"And a reason of Ruka leaving after Truyo's death would be to take care of her supposed children because they would have been so young!" Botan exclaimed.  
  
"But that still doesn't prove Karuka's innocence, and those are just accusations. Just because it's nine months doesn't mean that she had a baby. Even with the stretch marks." Koenma added before Botan could say something.  
  
"Why don't you scan for finger prints?" Hiei, who was standing in the corner the whole time everyone else was researching, suggested.  
  
O_O (Koenma)  
  
"OGRE!"  
  
"Yes Koenma sir?"  
  
"Why didn't YOU suggest that?!"  
  
"Uh?"  
  
"Go get finger prints on this dagger!" Koenma yelled while throwing the dagger at George.  
  
"AAHH!" George caught it and left the room.  
  
"Hiei? Why didn't you suggest that before?" Kurama asked his quiet friend.  
  
"I was having fun watching you pathetic beings rummage through all of that waste."  
  
"Then all that stuff we did was worthless?!" Yusuke yelled.  
  
"And we don't even know if that stuff is true!" Kuwa put in.  
  
'Don't worry, that's all true.' Hiei thought. He still didn't want to explain the horrid dream just yet, he would wait for the right time.  
  
"I've got it sir! The finger prints don't match Karuka's! She's innocent!" George ran in yelling.  
  
"Yes! We don't have to kill the shadow species! We don't have to kill the shadow species!" Koenma was jumping around and singing.  
  
"So Karuka's free?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"Oh heck no! She still is wanted for thievery and murder, but since she didn't kill Ruka she doesn't have to be executed. Ogre? Go put Karuka in a more comfortable place so when she wakes up she won't be groggy." Koenma said.  
  
"Yes sir. HEY! WHERE DID KARUKA GO?!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Shade- Another day, another chappie with a cliffy. Isn't it grand?  
  
People- No it isn't.  
  
Shade- SCREW YOU! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!  
  
People- Everyone else sucks.  
  
Shade- But you're just people, you have no names.  
  
One person- Um, I'm Carl *raises hand*  
  
Another person- Yeah, and my names Dave  
  
Shade- Do you really think that I'm going to waste my time learning your names?  
  
People- No.  
  
Shade- Correct! Here are some cookies that aren't moldy! *wink, wink*  
  
People- yeah! *eats them real fast*  
  
Shade- Please review! 


	11. awakening the monster

Shade- Hiya! Okay, first of all I screwed up on the explanation for killing Karuka. It's supposed to be if a FAMILY member kills another they're executed BUT there's one way you can get out of that but you'll have to wait till later chapters to find out what.  
  
Also one more thing, I did too many 9 month disappearances I think. There should have been only four cuz Rien and Cruyo were twins  
  
People- *barfing*  
  
Shade- By the way people, those cookies WERE moldy  
  
People- you suck  
  
Shade- SHUT UP YOU SHIT HEADS!!! Sorry, I have a tendency to lose my cool when I'm typing... cuz I can't  
  
ON WITH THE STORY!  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Chapter 11: awakening the monster  
  
"Oh crap! Where is she now?" Yusuke proclaimed.  
  
"Hiei? Didn't you see her?" Koenma asked.  
  
"Nope." He answered.  
  
"Great, now we need to find her... AGAIN." Kuwabara sighed.  
  
"Idiots, she didn't go far." Hiei said pointing up.  
  
Everyone looked up to see a single shadow one the ceiling. Then a 'screw you' was heard and Karuka suddenly appeared above them and she leapt down.  
  
"Karuka? When did you get up there?" Kurama asked.  
  
"I woke up as someone was talking about my father's death, then I changed into my shadow form and moved as slow as I could as to not be spotted but unfortunately that didn't work." She answered glaring at Hiei during the last part.  
  
"Well, it seems that you caught me. I will have to give you credit for that, it's never happened before, but you're all still in my way of leaving so move." She said.  
  
"Hold it! You're not going anywhere! Ogre! Throw it on her!" Koenma yelled.  
  
The big blue ogre grabbed a net he had brought in earlier and tried to throw it on Karuka.  
  
Karuka quickly moved and appeared next to Yusuke.  
  
"AH!" He said.  
  
"I want a rematch." She plainly said.  
  
"No way! The only reason I won was because of a simple trick." He answered.  
  
"I know that's why I want the rematch."  
  
"Go ogre!" Koenma yelled.  
  
Ogre threw the net again and this time instead of dodging, Karuka slashed at it with her claws.  
  
"Stupid little baby." She said.  
  
"Fine, but you can't you can't leave! Because of your other felons you are on probation." Koenma said.  
  
"Okay, what will you do?" She asked.  
  
"If you join these four on some missions, then I can erase your records, like I did with those two." Koenma said while pointing to Hiei and Kurama.  
  
"Hm, I expected the short one but he seems to have a different aura. One that's kind, but still undetectably evil." Karuka said pointing to Kurama.  
  
'Youko?' She thought.  
  
"Fine" She answered, "I'll do you're stupid little games till I'm all paid off. Then, I can leave."  
  
"Uh, question?" Kuwa said to the back of Karuka.  
  
"What you pathetic waste of mass?"  
  
"How come you don't even seem at all hurt from fighting us all? It was only last night."  
  
"One, I didn't fight you, or rather you didn't fight me, I fought them. Two, the only reason I lost was because of the stupid little trick that was pulled, and the fact that the trick was pulled on my back." She answered.  
  
"Why does your back matter?" Kuwa said again.  
  
"None of your business." Karuka told him.  
  
Hiei made a slight smile thinking of the fact that he knew, and then turned it around remembering its purpose of being one of Karuka's weaknesses.  
  
"Well, I don't have another mission for you, so Karuka, you must stay here." Koenma said.  
  
Karuka only huffed.  
  
"Why don't you stay put in the 'home' where a women's supposed to be." Hiei said.  
  
Karuka went bug eyed and lost it. The whole room got dark and the only thing you could see was Karuka's face, or the side of her head depending where you were standing. Her face was shadowed and you could see her bright yellow eyes illuminate from any standing point in the room. She was obviously mad.  
  
"Think twice of what you say about women you stump. One false move and your head hits the ground... detached from your body."  
  
Everyone in the room, even Hiei, was slightly afraid of the power that Karuka was emitting. They all stood their ground hoping that she wouldn't blow the whole place up.  
  
"I beat you once, and next time I won't refrain to killing you. I spared your life before as to not waste energy on such a worthless being and save it for the remaining three. I learned not to dilly dally and get the job done. I may be a cat, but playing with my prey is something I do rarely in life situations. Otherwise, I'm all for torture and having fun with my opponent, key word, otherwise." Karuka never lost the angered look in her eyes and never took those eyes off of Hiei. Little does she know that Hiei knows almost all of her secrets.  
  
"Hn, if you believe that I am going to be afraid of a woman like you, you better write a will quick before your belongings go to waste." Hiei answered her seeming to not be afraid of the dark she produced in less then a blink of an eye.  
  
The dark disappeared and Karuka's eyes turned to her less taunting pale green.  
  
"If I must work with this runt please make it happen that he can be asked to shut up or stop looking at me." Karuka said.  
  
Before when she awoke to know ones notice she could feel Hiei's eyes searching her body looking for questions that he didn't already know the answers to. And trying to get deeper into this interesting past of hers.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Shade- I don't feel like talking and neither do the people  
  
People- *gagging because of Shade's brother's balled up socks in their mouths* Such... big... feet  
  
Shade- Please review! (Sorry for this chapter being short) 


	12. losing bad habits

Chapter 12: losing bad habits  
  
"You can go outside Karuka but I'm putting up a force field to make sure you don't run." Koenma said after the brief scare from Karuka and her mood swing.  
  
"Fine, just as long as I can get some fresh air away from all this gas being passed in here... pigs." Karuka said while swiping air in front of her nose with her hand as to push bad smells away.  
  
"Hey! We aren't doing that!" Kuwa proclaimed.  
  
"You may not hear it but I can and I can smell it. I'm leaving." Karuka said before exiting through the door.  
  
*~ outside ~*  
  
'This is bull crap. Never before have I been captured and now when I do it's by a human with a one track mind and he got lucky. Now I have to work with those two humans and two traitors. I hate karma.'  
  
Karuka was walking in the forest seemingly to no where but stopped in front of a tree and jumped. She landed on a branch near the middle of the tall trunk and jumped again till she was as close to the top as she could be. She looked out at her surroundings of spirit world in front of her and many emotions stirred around in her gut about her previous dream and the sad situation she was in.  
  
"Have I really sunk this low?" She asked herself out loud and to her surprise she got an answer.  
  
"With your life, yes you have." Hiei appeared on the same branch as she was but didn't look at her.  
  
"What? Can't I get one moment of my own before I continue my newly sad life? I already lost to a lowly ningen, now are you going to rub that in my face?" She asked him as she sat down.  
  
"I would, if he hadn't beaten me also." Hiei said glancing down at her and watching her emotionless face.  
  
"Obviously, since I beat you."  
  
"If I hadn't underestimated your real power I would have won." Hiei told her.  
  
"Well you did, and that's a weakness. You should have felt my power when I took off my cloak and I'm pretty sure that you did. You underestimated me because I'm a woman and that is sexist you stump." Karuka said proudly in his face showing him how she can fend for herself.  
  
"Don't call me stump, you're shorter then I am. And I didn't underestimate you because you were a woman." Hiei retorted.  
  
Karuka stood up, "then why did you lose?" She disappeared to leave Hiei with his thoughts. He looked down and watched her walk away for a new place to think. This time, he didn't follow.  
  
*~ next day ~*  
  
"Oh for Kami's sake! Where did Karuka sleep?" Botan said in Koenma's office with the four boys inside.  
  
"I'm right here."  
  
"AH!" Botan, Yusuke and Kuwabara said in unison.  
  
"Don't do that! You're like Koenma!" Yusuke said.  
  
Karuka huffed, "Why are we all here? If it's only for tea and conversation I'm leaving." She said in a sarcastic voice.  
  
"Actually Karuka I have a new mission." Koenma answered.  
  
"By the way, I didn't get a chance to ask you this before because of the horrid smells." Karuka said.  
  
"Hey!" Kuwa yelled.  
  
"How many of these 'missions' am I going to have to go on?"  
  
"Well let's look at your record. Hm, plenty is all I can tell you." Koenma answered.  
  
"Crap."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"What do you want me to say? 'Great I can't wait'?" Karuka sneered at all the others in the room.  
  
"What's the mission Koenma?" Yusuke finally asked.  
  
"Hold on sir!" Botan said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"We never got the Santifugi Gem from Karuka!"  
  
"Oh yes! Of course! Karuka."  
  
"I hope you enjoy your long and painful death you ferry, because it's coming soon." Karuka said.  
  
*Gulp*  
  
"Karuka?"  
  
"Here." Karuka held out her hand and a green gem appeared. She threw it to the baby Koenma.  
  
"And the others?"  
  
"Hmph." Karuka held out her arms to the side and a lot of artifacts fell from them.  
  
"AH! GO CATCH THOSE!" Suddenly Ogre ran into the room trying to catch all the priceless items from hitting the floor.  
  
"Whew." Koenma wiped the sweat from his forehead when ogre had caught all the items.  
  
"Now! Your mission. Well, your mission is to go and kill a demon by the name of Garu. He has gone into the human world and is killing innocent civilians and stealing their money. The only problem is that he is taking their bodies so your job will be a bit harder." Koenma said.  
  
"If that's all we have to do then fine, let's go." Karuka said.  
  
"But you don't even know where in the human world he is." Botan reminded her.  
  
"I don't need to with this nose."  
  
"Aren't you going to need an eye?" Yusuke said.  
  
"Those are my back ups. Now let's go." Karuka said while she walked out of the room caring less if anyone was following her.  
  
*~ human world ~*  
  
"Hm, I was right, you humans are all pigs." Karuka said while standing near a trash can in the heart of Tokyo.  
  
"Come on, if we're gonna work together we're going to have to be nice to each others species." Kuwabara said aloud.  
  
"I never did but I'm still here." Hiei said.  
  
"Well if trash talking isn't going to get me out of this I don't know what will." Karuka said.  
  
"Come on you guys, the tracker Botan gave me isn't going off so we can do whatever we want until it does. Let's have some fun!" Yusuke exclaimed while pumping his arms into the air.  
  
Hiei and Karuka just stared.  
  
"If you think that I'm going to follow the advice of a piece of plastic that beeps you have another thing coming. I'm going to scan the area, don't wait up." Karuka said.  
  
"But how are you going to know who it is? He'll probably be in a human body." Kuwa asked.  
  
"I don't give." Karuka leapt to the top of a tall building and disappeared from their sight.  
  
"Party-pooper!" Yusuke yelled at the top of his lungs. "Come on Kuwabara! Let's go to the arcade." Yusuke and Kuwa ran off.  
  
"Hn, stupid humans. The girl shows the first sign of intelligence and they're off wasting their small brains on 50 cents and 5 minutes of waste hazards united. I'm searching for the guy." Then Hiei disappeared and Kurama was left alone.  
  
"Well, I guess I should be looking too." Kurama walked off to look for Garu.  
  
*~ 20 minutes later ~*  
  
Karuka stood atop a building at which she stopped for a moment to smell.  
  
'If there's another demon in this city besides the three I know about I should have found him by now. His human body is covering his scent well, but one break and I'm on it. Hm, it feels interesting to have a drive like this besides stealing or murder, where I have to find the guy first. I sort of... like it. Wait! What the hell am I saying! This is probation it shouldn't be fun!' Karuka cut short her thoughts when an odd smell entered her nose.  
  
'That's him.' Karuka went into shadow form and scaled the side of the building.  
  
*~ about a mile away ~*  
  
'There! I found him.' Hiei thought to himself, he leapt from his high perch at which he stood and went off in the same direction as Karuka.  
  
*~ a little ways away ~*  
  
'Yes, I can sense his odd demon energy. Defiantly not Hiei's or Karuka's.' Kurama sped off.  
  
*~ arcade (a bit after Karuka, Hiei and Kurama felt the energy) ~*  
  
*beep, beep*  
  
"Oh, crap! I'm on the highest level and now the tracker finds him!" Yusuke yelled over all the noise in the arcade.  
  
"Come on Kuwabara let's go!" He yelled.  
  
"But Urameshi! I'm having fun!" Kuwabara's voice was slightly muffled since he was yelling through the window as he was riding the little mechanical horse just outside.  
  
"That's what you've been doin' for the past half hour?!" Yusuke yelled.  
  
He grabbed Kuwa and ran with the tracker in hand.  
  
*~ with Karuka ~*  
  
Karuka was walking the streets of Tokyo following the weird smell. Once she locked who it came from, she ran. Karuka chased after a woman with pearls around her neck and the woman ran into an alley so no one could see.  
  
"Who are you? Help! Help!" The woman shouted.  
  
"Give it a rest Garu, I know it's you." Karuka said.  
  
"Hm, you must be a demon if you've found me then." The 'woman' said.  
  
Then, the woman's body fell to the ground and what was produced was a tall demon with scales all over his arms and slender yellow eyes much like Karuka's when she's mad except these were reptile eyes.  
  
"If you want to fight I'm all for it." He said.  
  
"Good, because I've been itching for killing something since a few days ago." Karuka said while getting into a fighting stance.  
  
Garu leapt at Karuka and she dodged quickly and appeared behind him and gave him a good kick. Garu fell forward and landed on his chest and screamed in agony as he landed on some of his spoilings tucked under his shirt.  
  
"It seems the placement of your jewels has caused you a bit of pain huh? That's why it's better for a shadow demon, you can do this." Karuka walked over and picked up a diamond that fell from Garu's pocket and morphed it into its shadow form to hide on her body.  
  
"Now you die." Karuka summoned her claws and began to slash at Garu till he bled to death, or so Karuka thought. Karuka began to walk off as Garu stood up ready to attack, and he did.  
  
Garu leapt towards Karuka but before he could land a punch on her she dodged.  
  
"So, you're still alive."  
  
"Barely, you're stronger then I thought, I under-"  
  
"Estimated me, of course. Dammit! Why can't anyone take me seriously?!" She outbursted.  
  
"Maybe it's because of your short temper." A shadowy figure walked into the alley.  
  
"Good timing Hiei. What'd you do? Start playing with the humans or get lost in a crowd of tall people?" Karuka said.  
  
"There are more of you? Great, I was barely holding my own with the girl." Garu said.  
  
"Couldn't take him by yourself? I expected more from you." Hiei said just to annoy her.  
  
"I'm not done yet apparently. Though I did scratch him up pretty good, maybe you can take him now Hiei." Karuka said just to annoy him.  
  
Karuka produced her claws again but this time she threw them at Garu and he couldn't dodge them.  
  
"You can throw your claws?" Hiei asked.  
  
"Actually it's more of a fling then a throw." She said before producing more. She looked to Garu who was staggering with ten claws embedded into him self.  
  
"You're such a weak opponent, I have nothing to gain from killing you." Karuka said.  
  
'That's why murdering and stealing was better. I had things to benefit from.'  
  
"Did I miss all the fun?" Kurama strolled into the alley looking completely cool even though he missed half the fight.  
  
"Okay, I see a pattern. Since you guys aren't helping any I'm going to kill this guy my self." Karuka said. She retracted her claws and leapt towards Garu at a lightning fast speed.  
  
Karuka stopped just in front of him and punched him straight in the stomach which sent him flying into the wall behind him. His bloody body slid down the wall and his yellow eyes were wide enough to cover tehm with the palm of your hand.  
  
"I hope you had fun watching since I had to do this all by my self. I thought you were spirit detectives or something. Don't make me do your job or you'll get too cozy and when I leave you'll be totally clueless." Then two quarreling voices came into earshot.  
  
"Ha! We're here so Garu you better watch out or the great Kazuma Kuwabara will take you down! Huh?" Kuwabara asked as he ran into the alley to see Kurama, Hiei and a slightly bloody Karuka in front of a two dead bodies. (A/N remember the rich woman's body is there too)  
  
"What happened?" He asked.  
  
"You were late." Hiei said.  
  
"And Karuka had to take care of Garu all by her self." Kurama added.  
  
"Don't make me sound like a child Kurama." Karuka said.  
  
"Come on, let's get back with the jewels." Kurama said as he walked over to Garu's body to take all the jewels.  
  
*~ outside of Koenma's office ~*  
  
"We did good didn't we?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"We? Since when was there a 'we' in this mission? You guys were off playing your stupid human videogames." Karuka said angrily.  
  
"Hey! I wasn't." Kuwa defended.  
  
"Yeah, you were on the little horse outside!" Yusuke shouted as he and Kuwabara began another fight.  
  
"Let's go inside." Kurama said while opening the door.  
  
"Ah, done already are we? Did Karuka get a chance to help?" Koenma asked sitting behind his desk.  
  
"Oh, I had a large chance. I was the only one fighting." Karuka answered him.  
  
"What? You mean you took Garu all by your self?" He asked again.  
  
"Yes, I caught his scent way before the stupid tracker caught his signal. Maybe you should consider getting new equipment Koenma." Karuka said while flipping her brown hair out of her face to look at the baby.  
  
"Well, since the job is done we shouldn't fight over who helped or not. What is important is that Garu is dead and you have all the jewels correct?" Koenma asked once again.  
  
"Yes Koenma, all right here." Kurama held out his hands to show many gems such as rubies and sapphires and diamonds.  
  
"Good." Koenma took out an eye magnifier thingy to check that they were all real.  
  
"Am I done now? I would like to leave." Karuka said.  
  
"Yes, yes sure you can go." Karuka turned around as Koenma's hoarse voice filled her tiger sensitive ears.  
  
"Wait! One diamond is missing!" Koenma exclaimed.  
  
"But where could it be? I know I picked up all of the jewels he had." Kurama wondered of what could have happened but turned his head towards Hiei and Karuka.  
  
"Guys? You didn't steal it did you?" He asked.  
  
"I didn't which means that she did." Hiei said glaring at Karuka.  
  
"Karuka? Did you steal the diamond?" Koenma asked.  
  
"Well aren't we all quick to judge." She said in defense.  
  
"Karuka?" Koenma said in more of a scornful father way.  
  
"Humph, fine, here." A shadow moved up Karuka's arm and to her palm till a diamond was shown inside of it.  
  
"Karuka! I can't believe you!" Koenma yelled as he ran around his desk to go retrieve the diamond.  
  
"Why not? I mean, it was only a few days ago that I was trying to steal the Santifugi gem. You should have known better then to put me on a mission including diamonds." She said in defense again.  
  
"You should have known better then to steal on your first mission where you knew that you were going to get caught!" Koenma yelled back.  
  
"If I knew that I was going to get caught then why in the hell would I have stolen it? Obviously I'm not stupid, how was I to know you were counting how many diamonds had been stolen?" She said before storming out of the room.  
  
"Well that little trick is going to cost her five more missions." He said.  
  
"What? Five more? We could barely live through one with her. She keeps making fun of us and making the job harder." Yusuke said.  
  
"How in the world could she make it harder to work when she was the one who was working? And besides, Hiei makes fun of you every time, you'll get used to her." Koenma said.  
  
"How do you know?" Kuwa asked.  
  
"Because I'll make you."  
  
Karuka stormed back into the room with a question.  
  
"Where the hell is my amulet?" She said. (A/N now her eyes are yellow)  
  
"In the vault where it belongs." Koenma answered.  
  
"It does not belong in there! The shadow amulet is supposed to be with me." Then a black and red light formed around Karuka's neck and the shadow amulet appeared.  
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot it does that." She said looking down at it.  
  
"What the heck! How did it escape the vaults force fields?" Koenma asked.  
  
"When ever I lose the amulet and think of it not being there it reforms around my neck. Why? I'm not sure." Karuka answered, "The amulet belongs with me until I die. I may not like that, but that's what happens."  
  
"Well that's a new thing about the amulet that I didn't know. Ogre? Write that down right after 'if killed all shadow demons die'." Koenma told the blue man thing.  
  
"What? What's 'if killed all shadow demons die'?" Karuka said.  
  
"Shouldn't you know? If you ever die and you have no offspring to give the amulet to then all the shadow demons would die." Koenma said.  
  
"Oh that? That's not true."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"It's not true. That myth was made up so if a child ever gets the amulet like I did the shadow demons would lay off. They made that up to keep the amulet safe because if I die the amulet is destroyed along with the power it holds plus they wanted it to stay in the family of course. The other shadow demons would be fine if I died." The whole room went bug eyed at that.  
  
"Uh? Sir? Should I uh... write that down?" The ogre asked.  
  
"Yes, erase the other thing and replace it with that."  
  
"Weird, it seems the myth carried on to everyone except the shadows." Karuka said.  
  
"What does that mean?" Kuwa asked.  
  
"I've been in several fights for the amulet before with demons who didn't know of the true way to fight a shadow fight so they didn't know the myth."  
  
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about killing a whole demon race now." Hiei said from his spot at the window sill.  
  
"Now, since all of that is cleared up I'm leaving... again." Karuka said mentally laughing at all of them for believing the myth that was originally created to fool her shadow brethren.  
  
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Shade- Okay I'm done! Any questions about anything? I am totally happy to answer cuz I probably screwed up on some stuff.  
  
People- We got one  
  
Shade- You guys, shut up and you guys (readers) please review! 


	13. a new power from the earth

Shade- Hi! Mistake correcting time! Karuka's nick-name is Karu not Karuk and sorry for that being so close to Garu's name, it originally was Garudori but I got bored of spelling that so I shortened it but he won't be in the story anymore so yay!  
  
Note: I would like to thank the reviewer who has reviewed my story the most... drum roll please *rolls drums* FEUDALFAIRYFAN4EVER! Yay! *balloons and confetti* you reviewed practically every one of my chapters and I thank you so... THANK YOU!  
  
Extra note: Thank you YUKINA-KUN for being my faithful reviewer! I will be looking forward to your reviews in the near future and I'm glad you like the story  
  
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Chapter 13: A new power from the earth  
  
Karuka was outside walking hoping no one was following her, unfortunately that didn't happen.  
  
"What do you want Hiei?" She said, and then Hiei jumped from a tree he had jumped into previously to the ground next to Karuka who never stopped walking.  
  
"Why did you steal the diamond?" He asked.  
  
"It was there that's why."  
  
"That's no answer." He retorted.  
  
"Look, I've been stealing things all of my life practically so it was just a normal reaction for me okay?" Karuka answered his question a bit annoyed at him following her.  
  
"And how long would that be?"  
  
Karuka tried to find a good answer for this, "Since I left the home I grew up in."  
  
"That long huh?" Karuka whirled in front of Hiei with a questioned look on her face.  
  
"What do you mean 'that long'? You don't know."  
  
"Oh don't I? I happen to know that you were quite young when you left your home."  
  
"And how would you know that?" She asked trying to get answers from him.  
  
"Your dream." Hiei said.  
  
Karuka stared at him completely confused. Then she grabbed his shoulders and pushed him into a tree with great force.  
  
"How do you know about my dream?" She asked not loosening her grip.  
  
"I saw it." Hiei said while his Jagan eye glowed under his head band. Karuka retreated.  
  
"You have a Jagan eye?"  
  
Hiei only nodded.  
  
"How dare you pry into my personal dream like that stump!" Hiei growled at the name 'stump' and answered her.  
  
"Kind of hard not to when you were practically pulling off my cloak at your fear inside of it!" Karuka, instead of slapping him like any other girl, walked up and punched him in the face sending him back about 100 feet, (A/N it is a big forest) stared at him as he was standing up and when he did, she walked off.  
  
Hiei stood staring at Karuka with a hand on his cheek to stop the bleeding. Then he felt someone stand next to him.  
  
"That's why you were in that tree when we were walking back?" Kurama asked the bleeding demon.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"That wasn't the best way to approach her now was it Hiei?"  
  
"Shut up fox. If you let any word of this slip out it's your head." Hiei turned around and began to walk back.  
  
"Yes, of course." Kurama turned around and followed.  
  
*~ with Karuka ~*  
  
'That little bastard! Looking into my private dream like that! I can't believe that I'm going to have to work with him again.' Karuka had stopped at a cliff and peered down at the water below.  
  
"Maybe if I kill myself everything will be better. Dying sure as hell will be better then this." Karuka sat down contemplating the thought of suicide. She now felt alone with her piece and quiet.  
  
'Maybe I should train.' Karuka stood up and walked out to an open area to begin her training.  
  
First she summoned a few daggers and threw them at a tree.  
  
"Boring."  
  
Then she summoned her spear and did the same.  
  
"This sucks. Maybe I should make a new weapon."  
  
Karuka was very skilled in making weapons from her claws. With her shadow energy she could manipulate them to change their molecules and become like the real thing.  
  
Karuka sat and thought of her new weapon, she didn't want anything flashy and bright, those annoyed her. She instead thought of the basics, or what seemed to be the basics. Something unnoticeably strong that people underestimated, like herself. She decided on something that would be perfect.  
  
Karuka stood up and put her hands in front of her and began the making of her knew weapon. She extended a few of her claws and changed them to a long steel rod and wood.  
  
In the finished project, which took ten minutes to make, it was a simple looking wooden rod about 8 to 10 feet long. It looked so harmless that you wouldn't even try to defend yourself in an attack. Karuka liked this thought. If people were going to underestimate her she should get used to it, and take advantage of it.  
  
She began to try it out and to her surprise she was quite well at her first try. In fact, she was so into it, she totally forgot about the time, her probation and the dream that Hiei mentioned. This was new and powerful, something that others would get bored with, but not Karuka. She felt all in power with a simple piece of wood and a strand of steel. She loved it.  
  
'Why didn't I think of this before? Should I feel weird for liking this so much? It's just a piece of wood.' Karuka stopped to look at the rod in her hand. She didn't care what others thought now, she only cared about watching their sorry little faces when they realized they shouldn't have underestimated her or her new weapon. She changed it to a shadow on her clothing and walked off with an evil smile.  
  
That night Karuka slept outside as she usually does. She didn't take the bed they offered her. Karuka had to get used to spirit world since she used to sleep outside in the demon world. She didn't have a dream, though the smile she had in her sleep would make others question that theory, she was happy for not being reminded of that dream before.  
  
*~ next day ~*  
  
"Any new missions?" Kuwa asked as he entered the office of Koenma.  
  
"Yes, it seems they just keep rolling in now." He answered.  
  
"And what would this mission be? I don't have all day you know." Yusuke said.  
  
"Well you're gonna need about a week."  
  
"What? A week? That's too long!" Kuwa whined.  
  
"Too bad, you're all going. You need to search for yet another gem, so keep an eye on Karuka while you're at it. You have to get there in a week because there are other demons searching for this gem, and it's important that it doesn't get in their hands." Koenma finished.  
  
"What's its name?" Kurama asked the baby.  
  
"The Hamisha Sapphire. Once in possession it will cast a down pour of rain on any city you like destroying it in a flood." Koenma answered.  
  
"Why don't you ever send us to get these things when there aren't large groups of demons crawling after it?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"Because it's more fun this way. Where are Hiei and Karuka? They need to know about their week long quest." Koenma asked.  
  
"I'm right here." Hiei stepped out of the shadows that surrounded him and revealed the red mark on his face from Karuka which was the real reason for him being in the dark in the first place.  
  
"Oh, I didn't notice you come in. Where is that mark from?" Koenma asked again.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Yes, do you know where Karuka is?"  
  
"No, I don't." Hiei returned back to the shadows.  
  
"I'm sorry I'm late. Oh, wait, let me take that back because isn't lying a felony?" Karuka had entered as a shadow so she didn't open the door so her presence surprised everyone else.  
  
"Good that you're here Karuka, now you can start your new week long mission. I'm sure the guys will feel you in as you head out." Koenma said.  
  
"A week? Great, why don't you put me in a mental asylum? I'll probably go less crazy." She said.  
  
"Glad you're excited."  
  
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Shade- Time to start my current event cuz it's due tomorrow and it SUCKS! At least it's on sports so I won't lose my attention and accidentally turn on the t.v.! Okay gotta waste no more time! ¡Por favor revision! (Please review in Spanish, and there's supposed to be an accent over the o in revision. How do you do that?!) 


	14. falling for you

Shade- Sup? First of all I didn't mean to review in Spanish I meant Por favor revision was Spanish for please review. Sorry if that confused some people I guess not everyone takes a Spanish class  
  
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Chapter 14: falling for you  
  
*~ day 1 ~*  
  
The five fighters were walking through the demon world forest to go look for this gem that they had to retrieve. They had yet to tell Karuka about it.  
  
"So what's going on?" She asked, surprisingly she sounded more interested than annoyed.  
  
"We have to go get some sapphire before these other demons do. It'll probably take a week to get there, or at least that's what Koenma said." Yusuke answered.  
  
"And we have to watch you to make sure you don't try and steal it." Kuwabara added on.  
  
"Well that makes me feel welcome all the better." She said.  
  
"Don't worry you'll get used to them after a while." Kurama said to make Karuka feel a bit better.  
  
"Yeah? And when do you think you'll get used to me?" She said, staring her pale green eyes into his bright and vibrant ones.  
  
They didn't talk for quite a long time until they came to a good place to set up camp for the oncoming nightfall.  
  
"So who wants to make a fire? Hiei? How 'bout you?" Yusuke asked as the chilling cold was just getting to him.  
  
"I'm perfectly fine the way I am. Try and make your own fire, you can use dust from the idiots head." Hiei told him.  
  
"How is it that you always find a way to make fun of me every time your mouth opens?" Kuwa asked.  
  
"It's a gift."  
  
"Well, it seems we have a greedy little stump on our hands hm? That 'gift' wasn't enough for you huh was it?" Karuka said, referring to the Jagan.  
  
"Hn." Hiei turned his head and disappeared into a tree to begin his rest.  
  
Karuka huffed and walked off into the darkness to find her peace and quiet among the many trees she hoped would muffle the sound of the rests voices. She sat at the trunk of a tree to think.  
  
'I'm going to be in four more missions after this. They better not suck me into a goody goody phase and make my stand here permanent.' She opened one eye as she smelled the new area to become familiar with it and its scents.  
  
She turned her head to see Yusuke hitting Kuwabara on the head as he had sneezed their fire out when the smoke entered his nose. She made no reaction to this and turned her head to fall asleep.  
  
*~ day 2 ~*  
  
It was four in the morning but no one knew since they didn't have watches. Karuka was up, she was enable to sleep thinking of the future she held. She walked off towards the light of the moon.  
  
"It's almost a full moon. I think that will come while I'm still on this week long mission. I wonder if I can just sneak away for a bit with out them knowing." Karuka had an important tradition coming up with the full moon nearing. She didn't feel like explaining it to the people she had known for how long? Not even a week yet. She didn't want to admit it, but she was getting used to these bafoons around her.  
  
"Catching fish are we?" Karuka turned around and met the illuminating red eyes of Hiei staring at the moon instead of her.  
  
"Do you like to stalk women when they're vulnerable? Or is it just a coincidence that you're awake at this hour?" Karuka asked turning back around.  
  
"I'm a night person too." He said to her.  
  
"Doesn't leave much time for us to sleep when we're with the others does it?" Karuka said.  
  
"I've learned to ignore them and do my sleeping while they're rambling on about nothing to my interest. The hard part is to walk and sleep, but I got that down." Hiei said thinking that would make Karuka slightly smile as he walked to stand by her side.  
  
"Another gift?" She asked looking at him.  
  
"Hn, so I looked into your dream, so what?"  
  
"How much did you see?" She asked.  
  
"If there was more then what I saw I would expect you to be dead now." He said.  
  
"Yes, well not many people know of my real past. Excluding you, one maybe two, maybe even none." She told him.  
  
"Maybe?"  
  
"For all I know they could be dead, I haven't seen them all since childhood."  
  
Hiei said nothing.  
  
"So the baby told you to watch me in case I try to steal this gem?" Karuka asked.  
  
"Yes, it seems he doesn't trust you."  
  
"Well, to tell the truth, I don't trust my self either, and I don't expect you to trust me. I tried to kill you."  
  
"Yes, I can't forget that, but I can trust that that won't happen again." Hiei turned to Karuka to get an answer.  
  
"Unless you overly annoy me I might just have to try again. And these little sessions we have aren't going to help us any I don't think. You're on the good side, I am not. I don't see that changing any time in the near future, you know what I went through and you can't change that. My past practically entitles me to a life of robbery and you can't change that either." Karuka, again like the other times, walked away from the scene leaving Hiei to think.  
  
'I know your past, and mine is similar. You can change, anyone can.' (A/N Do you think he's a bit out of character here?)  
  
*~ few hours later (8:00) ~*  
  
"Yusuke, wake up." Kurama was shaking Yusuke to get up after he had failed at Kuwabara who was literally in la la land.  
  
"Uh what's going on?" Yusuke jolted up at the touch of Kurama.  
  
"Well at least you're easier to wake up then Kuwabara." Kurama said. Karuka came from the brush to stand a few feet away Kurama just in time to listen to Kuwabara's sleep talking.  
  
"Oh I love you Yukina. Will you marry me?" He said with some drool coming out of the side of his mouth.  
  
Yusuke began to laugh and Kurama chuckled as he was looking around for Hiei.  
  
"Yukina?" Karuka said. 'Why does that name sound so familiar?'  
  
"Yukina's Kuwabara's love interest." Yusuke told her.  
  
"How sweet and nauseating at the same time." Karuka said.  
  
Luckily Kuwabara woke up before Hiei appeared.  
  
"So we're all here. Let's go and find that sapphire." Kurama said as he walked off with Yusuke and Kuwabara close behind. Karuka followed them with out even glancing towards Hiei. He soon followed her too.  
  
"This is so boring! I want to do something else." Yusuke whined as he walked through the forest.  
  
"Don't be such a grouch Urameshi. Enjoy the walk!"  
  
"And what's making you so happy Kuwabara? Usually you'd be complaining more than me."  
  
"I dunno. Maybe it's the river or something." Kuwabara said as he pointed near the river.  
  
"Oh yeah, I forgot that was there." Yusuke said now looking towards the river.  
  
"Oh yeah, and long blue puddles are always the hardest to spot through a four tree clearing." Karuka sarcastically said.  
  
"Hey shut up. I'm not that good at noticing things right off the bat when I'm tired."  
  
"It's a river Yusuke. A drunkard could see that." Karuka put in.  
  
Yusuke began to get mad at Karuka but thought of what Koenma had said.  
  
'Well that little trick is going to cost her five more missions.'  
  
He was going to have to get used to her.  
  
*crackle*  
  
"It looks like a storm's coming in." Kurama said as he listened to the noise of the lightning.  
  
"We better get some shelter or the rain may hold us back." Yusuke informed.  
  
"I don't need shelter from the rain." Karuka said.  
  
"Well we do, come on." Kuwabara grabbed her wrist as they all walked towards a cave they had come across.  
  
Inside they all situated themselves normally.  
  
"What are we going to do for food?" Yusuke asked holding his stomach as it growled.  
  
"We may be able to get some near by berries from the bushes." Kurama suggested.  
  
"That's all?"  
  
Karuka stood up and headed toward the opening of the cave.  
  
"Where are you going?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"To get some food." She answered.  
  
"You can't go out there in that weather."  
  
"I do what I please, and I'm going to get food." Karuka never turned around.  
  
"But Karuka!" She had already gone.  
  
"Crap! Now we need to go get her." Yusuke exclaimed.  
  
"Come on you guys we need to find her, she could be making a break for it or something." Kuwa said.  
  
"Okay, come on Hiei, you need to look too." Kurama said walking to the opening.  
  
"Hn." Hiei stood up and lightning struck out just as he stepped out into the rain.  
  
"I'm getting wet." Kuwa whined.  
  
"That's to be expected when it rains you fool."  
  
"Shut up!"  
  
"Come on, we're out here to find Karuka not fight! Now I think we should split to cover more ground." Yusuke said and they all agreed. The four split up and walked off by themselves.  
  
Following Hiei, he was nearing the river and he could faintly see a silhouette in the distance.  
  
'Hn.' He thought.  
  
As he neared the shadow he knew was Karuka, he could see a weapon in her hand, it was a spear. He watched her throw the long stick into the water and stab fish as the rope tied to her wrist brought the spear back up with the help of her force.  
  
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked her.  
  
"Fishing you idiot." Karuka didn't turn around.  
  
"Hn, we thought you were escaping."  
  
"Well I'm not. I'm just hungry." She threw the spear into the water again and produced two more fish on the end of it.  
  
"Get back now." Hiei ordered.  
  
"I'd rather not." Karuka said just to annoy him.  
  
Hiei wouldn't take this so he grabbed her arm, which was obviously a bad mistake.  
  
He could tell that she was growing angry as she fought the pull of his body and nearly threw him into the river. He let go.  
  
"I'm not going anywhere till I want to." She said then turned around and her yellow eyes stared him down. The wind blew up scattering Karuka's wet hair to the side as she kept looking at Hiei waiting for him to leave.  
  
"If you want to stay out here it's fine by me. I don't care if you die or not, it makes no difference in my life." He turned around to leave.  
  
"I've heard that before." Karuka whispered as she thought of the places she had scavenged off to after leaving her house where she was not exactly respected.  
  
Hiei didn't hear her but one huge, unexpected gust of wind forced him to her. The wind pushed Hiei back into Karuka, hitting his head with hers, and they were thrown into the river below, both unconscious.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Shade- *singing* please review! Because I to-o-old you please review! Ah, the one place where my singing won't crack glass  
  
Person holding glass- *crack*  
  
Shade- Dammit 


	15. liars and tigers and bears oh my!

Shade- Let's just go right into things here... I might not continue 'power of a punk' cuz it's boring me, and you should never write something you don't believe in right?  
  
People who care- CONTINUE THE DAMN STORY!  
  
Shade- Okay, okay I'll try! Since I'm on break now maybe I can get a few of P.O.A.P. chapters in  
  
People who care- Good.  
  
Shade- Now let's continue with THIS story can we?  
  
People who care- *Nod*  
  
Shade- Good.  
  
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Chapter 15: liars tigers and bears oh my!  
  
Hiei and Karuka were floating unconscious down the river they had fell into furthering themselves from the storm. Their bodies got caught in some weeds growing by the side of the river stopping them from going any further. Karuka was the first to wake up.  
  
"What?" Karuka held her bleeding head and looked at her surroundings. She saw Hiei at the side of her. Then, he began to stir.  
  
"Hiei?" She asked now looking at his bleeding head.  
  
"What?" He looked up at Karuka dumbfounded at what had happened and at that moment he felt the pain from his head.  
  
*groan* the two stood up still unaware at what was going on.  
  
"What happened?" Karuka asked.  
  
Hiei turned to the river and saw blood in it.  
  
"I think we fell into the river. We must have been unconscious." He answered.  
  
The two were holding their bleeding heads and looked at each other.  
  
"Wait, I remember. Something hit my head and I fell into the river. Was that you?" Karuka asked.  
  
"Hn, yes it was."  
  
"Were you really that mad at me?" Karuka asked.  
  
"Shut up. It was the wind that pushed me over. You just happened to be in the way."  
  
"If the wind did that then maybe you should put on a couple more pounds before a breeze pushes you over a cliff."  
  
"Shut up. We need to get back." Hiei said looking up stream to see how far they had gone.  
  
"Judging by the speed of the river and the amount of time we were floating down it, I would say that we're 25 miles to 30 miles away from them, give or take a mile." Karuka said.  
  
"Great, that shouldn't take long." Hiei said pissed at how far away they were.  
  
The two began to walk up the river, both silent.  
  
*~ half an hour later ~*  
  
"How far do you think we've gone?" Karuka asked.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Really, I would have guessed at least five miles." Karuka said sarcastically.  
  
"Why don't we run? We're both about the same speed, and if we're lucky we could get there by nightfall." Hiei asked Karuka.  
  
"Because, we both have head wounds that need to heal. If we do anything fast pace like running we'll probably bleed to death, and it will be faster since it's the head we're talking about."  
  
Hiei stared at her surprised that she knew even a little about healing.  
  
"My mom was a healer, she drove those things into my head." Karuka said not even looking at Hiei.  
  
"We should probably get some food or we'll waste our energy." She said.  
  
"But we're walking." Hiei told her.  
  
"Yes we are stump, but any physical activity burns calories and if we don't get food soon we'll slow down. Now do you want to get back faster or do you want to stay with me longer and listen to my babbling about health related things?" Karuka asked stopping to look at Hiei.  
  
"Come on." He said walking towards the forest.  
  
"That's what I thought." Karuka followed.  
  
"Where is your spear? Maybe we could have fish or something." Hiei jumped into a tree to scan the area.  
  
"What makes you think that I'm going to catch your food for you?" She asked angrily.  
  
"I can make you do so or I might have to 'carve the turkey' if you know what I mean." He said.  
  
"It's lost in the river." Karuka said, because she knew what he meant.  
  
"Was it your only one?"  
  
"Yes. But I can make a new one."  
  
"A new one?" Hiei sounded curious.  
  
"Yes, I can make another spear." Karuka said.  
  
"How?" Hiei asked but he wouldn't stay put to hear her answer.  
  
The tree Hiei was standing on blew up and he dodged out of the way just in time.  
  
"Who's there?" Karuka asked producing her claws.  
  
"Coming into another's territory is not a good thing for strangers to do." A deep voice came out of the trees behind Karuka and a spear was thrown at her head.  
  
She dodged it and it connected with a tree in front of her.  
  
"My spear." Karuka ran towards the spear but was cut off by a very tall and very masculine bear demon.  
  
"This is my territory get out!" He yelled at her.  
  
"Why is this your territory? Did you piss on it or something?" Karuka said agitating the demon. He growled and took a swing towards Karuka, she dodged and landed on the tree behind him.  
  
The bear demon landed on all four paws then stood up again and turned around. Karuka was gone and so was the spear.  
  
"Looks like it's just you and me." The demon turned around to be faced with Hiei.  
  
"If I have to fight a munchkin to get you out so be it." Hiei was pissed at the munchkin pun and attacked him.  
  
Hiei drew his sword and lunged towards the bear at incredible speed. He stabbed him right in the stomach and felt glory as he heard him scream out in pain. But the second time he screamed Hiei was confused. He jumped back as the demon fell forward and was surprised to see a spear embedded into his back. He looked up and saw Karuka walking towards him with a smirk on her face.  
  
"And where were you?" Hiei asked her.  
  
"Try and guess. I was on the tree."  
  
"Shadow form?" Karuka nodded.  
  
"Hn, I could have handled him myself." Hiei said.  
  
"Well he didn't think so, munchkin." Said Karuka into Hiei's ear as she walked past him with the spear in her hand. Hiei aimed his sword at Karuka's head and was about to attack but Karuka defended with the spear.  
  
"If you can't take some height jokes then one of us won't live through these missions. And I don't think that's it's gonna be me to die." She said holding back the force of Hiei's sword very well.  
  
Hiei withdrew and sheathed his sword.  
  
"Hn." He began to walk away as the sun began to set.  
  
'Well, I might as well catch some fish for myself.' Karuka thought while she walked toward the river.  
  
Hiei sat in a tree watching Karuka spear fish, she was quite good at it. He sat and watched as her pile grew from five fish, to ten, to sixteen. One thing Hiei would never do was admit that someone else was right and he was wrong, but he was getting hungry.  
  
Karuka stopped her spearing and took her load of fish to go and cook over a fire. When it was made and the fish were cooking Hiei couldn't help but smell.  
  
'Damnit. I had a slight chance of her being a horrible cook and she's not. But I still can't go down there and ask for some, she'll shove that in my face and probably won't even give me any.' Hiei thought with his eyes closed smelling the cooked salmon. He looked down and saw Karuka take the fish off the spear that she was cooking it on and begin to eat.  
  
'Damnit.'  
  
*~ down with Karuka ~*  
  
'Stupid stump. Won't even let a little competition get through that rough outside of his. At least he won't get any of this fish, stupid stump. He looks hungry though. Oh wait, that's his mad face never mind.' Karuka shoved the fish down her throat but looked at Hiei the whole time wondering if he was hungry.  
  
'Stupid kind genes I got from my mother. Karuka took a fish that had cooled off a bit and jumped onto the branch that Hiei sat on.  
  
"What?" Hiei asked surprised at the fish in her hand.  
  
"Here." Karuka put the food in front of his face."  
  
"And what's this for?" He asked.  
  
"To slap your opponents' silly with, it's to eat stupid." She told him.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" Karuka hesitated to find an answer.  
  
"Because, like I said before, physical activity burns calories and you haven't eaten anything today. I don't want to be carrying your butt all day tomorrow."  
  
"Sure, liar." Hiei said about to take the fish.  
  
"What?" Karuka pulled the salmon back away from Hiei's reach.  
  
"I called you a liar." Hiei seemed cool waiting for Karuka to react.  
  
"Fine, then I won't give you the fish." Hiei wasn't expecting that and Karuka leapt down to return to the burning fire.  
  
'Damnit.' Hiei couldn't take it, he was hungry and he had to take this 'like a man' as Kuwabara would say. He leapt down and stood next to Karuka who lay against a tree trunk.  
  
"What is it stump?" Karuka stuck the fish that she offered to Hiei in her mouth.  
  
"Give me the fish." He demanded.  
  
"I'm not going to give you any if you act like that you rude munchkin." Karuka looked up at him with an angered look in her eyes, though they stayed green.  
  
"Hn, fine. May I... May I," Hiei winced at his kindness, "May I please have some fish?" Hiei felt sickened.  
  
"Now that was just wrong, I know you lied but fine." She handed a fish to Hiei and to her surprise instead of jumping back into the tree he sat by her. She gave a light smirk and continued to eat and put another fish on the spear.  
  
By the time they ran out of fish it was late at night, they hadn't said one word to each other. Karuka stood up and jumped into a tree to sleep. Hiei did the same but into a different tree right across from Karuka's. Karuka had her eyes closed but Hiei stared at her for a bit thinking of breaking her exterior like others tries to do with him. He could tell that Karuka could feel his eyes on her so he looked away and closed his eyes to sleep.  
  
'Stupid stump.' Hiei read her mind and was still angry at that name. He wondered how anyone could last even a week with this girl. His thoughts ceased as he drifted off to sleep.  
  
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Shade- Another chapter gone, never to be typed again... or somthin' like that  
  
PLEASE REVIEW! 


	16. moon

Shade- I have got WAY to much time on my hands even though I don't cuz I have to make a poster, an essay and a presentation for my Night of the Notables not to mention get a costume and I only have, like, half the life of my Notable and the presentation is on the 22nd. And I'm going to need to answer questions on her I also have to set up a teaching lesson in science and read for L.A., I also have to practice for orchestra so I can get first violin, do I have math homework? Oh crap  
  
Question: Was any one tricked by the title 'falling for you'? I tried to make it seem that Karuka would 'get with' someone but she really just fell, any one at all?  
  
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Chapter 16: moon  
  
Karuka was awake and thinking of the full moon.  
  
'Crap, the full moon is tonight. I'm going to be with the stump. How am I going to explain? He'll probably find out by stalking me.' Karuka got out of her tree to wake Hiei up so they could start walking again.  
  
"Hey stump! Get up, we need to go." Karuka had yelled into Hiei's ear which made him go wide eyed and almost fall out of the tree.  
  
"Fine." Hiei stood up, looked Karuka in the eye then disappeared.  
  
"Hm? Was it something I said?" Karuka joked and followed Hiei.  
  
Walking Karuka was holding her head.  
  
"Does it still hurt?" Hiei asked, a bit more interested then he normally would have been.  
  
"What?" Karuka asked irritated.  
  
"Your head stupid."  
  
"Humph, no."  
  
"Then why exactly are you holding it?"  
  
"Care to not be pry into others more interesting lives for once?" Karuka walked faster to avoid more questions from Hiei. He stayed behind.  
  
Walking, Karuka's head grew more agitated and she couldn't bare it. She stopped to treat her wound. Hiei never stopped his pace, he only smirked.  
  
"I thought you said that it didn't hurt?" He said walking by.  
  
"Shut up stump!" Karuka took a swing at Hiei but he disappeared. He didn't know that making Karuka move that fast would further worsen the wound, but they both ignored it.  
  
"If you're going to be annoying for the rest of our little 'vacation' inform me so I can learn how to walk and sleep at the same time like you."  
  
"Hn." Hiei said.  
  
By the end of the day the two had covered seven miles since there were no weird demons trying to get them out of their territory. With the other five from the previous day they had 18 miles left. Whoohoo.  
  
"I'm going to sleep." Hiei jumped into a tree and closed his eyes.  
  
'I hope he means that. I need to do my stuff right now. It's almost midnight.' Karuka thought as she pretended to go to sleep and only waited for Hiei to.  
  
*~ twenty minutes into the future whooooowhooo -BAM- shut up! Twenty minutes LATER ~*  
  
'Let's see.' Karuka hopped over to Hiei's tree and waved her hand in front of his face. He did nothing. She clapped a bit. He did nothing.  
  
'If he wakes up when I'm doing this I'm killing someone.' Karuka leapt down to the ground and walked over to the river and sat down.  
  
'The full moon. Time for mom.' Karuka sat and looked up at the moon thinking of her mother.  
  
"What are you doing?" Karuka sweat dropped.  
  
"How in the heck are you awake?! I tested you." Karuka stood to face Hiei.  
  
"I faked it. I also read your mind earlier and you were talking about the full moon so I decided to check it out. So, what are you doing?"  
  
"I don't have to tell you." Karuka crossed her arms and turned around mad.  
  
"I think you do." He said.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You need to, or I can tell the rest about the fish offering." It didn't sound like much, but to Karuka's ego/reputation she coulsnn't have it known that she offered Hiei food to live.  
  
"Fine." Karuka looked away. "Every full moon I sit and look at it because..." She hesitated, "when I was a child, my mom told me to look at the moon in its full form and said that she was looking at it too, it was a thing to tell me that I was with my mom. Since she lived in the palace I practically never saw her, and looking at the moon was the only time I felt like... I was with her. Even after her death I still feel like she's looking at it along with me." Karuka felt weird because she had told someone she fought with plenty of times of this secret. Not even her father knew, and he took her to see the moon every month of her life before. Although, it felt good to get it out.  
  
"Oh." Hiei could see Karuka's pain, in the way she stood, the way she breathed, in every factor of how she appeared. Did he actually feel... sorry for her?  
  
"If you tell a soul about that I swear I'll rip out your tongue and replace that white headband with it." Karuka sternly said. She was covering her pain with anger, like she had done for years.  
  
"I won't. I'm more honorable then you think."  
  
"Hn, you better be, or it's soft foods for the rest of your life." Karuka turned to shadow form and left.  
  
Hiei lowered his head thinking if what he had done was not the best thing to do. He looked around to see if he could sense her energy, he couldn't. The shadow form of Karuka's was covering her energy so Hiei would have to wait for her to change back. He went back into the tree to sleep.  
  
*~ with Karuka ~*  
  
Karuka was sitting on the other side of the river trying to cover her energy from Hiei.  
  
'Why did I tell him? Damn, he's making me weak. But why him? I've encountered other people that TRIED to get that kind of information out of me and I never said a word. What makes him so different? Ow! Crap my head still hurts. That was two days ago how could it still hurt? Could it... be... that... no.' Karuka fell unconscious into a pool of her own blood that she hadn't noticed drip from the back of her head.  
  
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Shade- Please review 


	17. bugs here and there too

Shade- I have nothing to say but enjoy... so... enjoy  
  
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Chapter 17: bugs here and there too  
  
Karuka lay there, still bleeding from her head. In the act of falling unconscious, Karuka obviously couldn't cloak her energy any longer and Hiei caught feel of her power. His eyes jolted open at the sudden surge of energy, but he hesitated to move.  
  
'If I look for her then she will think I'm a stalker. I should leave her be.' He closed his eyes, unaware at what had really happened.  
  
Then, on the other side of the river Karuka suddenly woke up with the taste of blood in her mouth. It seemed that the entrance of the liquid into her throat cut off her breathing ability causing her to wake up.  
  
*cough, cough* "What the hell?" Karuka sat up baring the pain from her head.  
  
'Ow! Man, how long was I out?' She grimaced and looked at the pool of her blood and horrid memories flooded into her mind.  
  
'Damnit!' She hit the pool of blood with her fist as she remembered waking up in her dead family's blood as a child.  
  
'Why can't they ever leave me alone?' Tears weld up into Karuka's eyes but she quickly wiped then away before they could fall into her blood. More memories entered her head but she tried her best to ignore them. She laid her hand upon the wound and it quickly healed over.  
  
"I wonder if that was the best choice." Karuka's head still felt bad but she knew by morning it would be better.  
  
"God, that was horrible. I need sleep, to bad I can't." Karuka sat awake for hours and just looked at the moon feeling the back of her newly healed head.  
  
'Man, I shouldn't have wasted the power on that.' Karuka was thinking of her small amount of healing power that she got from her mother. It was limited though, after the sacrifice that she made, her once permanent healing power would be taken and she would only have a few more attempts at healing anything after that.  
  
'I need rest.' Karuka fell asleep in the light of the moon, hoping that a dream would not visit her in her sleep.  
  
*~ next day (number 5 I think... I lost count) ~*  
  
'Where is she?' Hiei flitted from tree to tree trying to find Karuka. He knew that he couldn't leave without her, or he would have to feel her wrath once she found him again. Then, he caught sense of her energy and moved off in that direction.  
  
'She's still sleeping?' Hiei looked down at Karuka's body and watched the rise of her chest as she slept soundly.  
  
'Is that her blood?' Hiei knelt down to see the blood that Karuka laid next to, but he ignored it when he saw no evidence of her having an open wound.  
  
'She must have killed something. Now, it's time for revenge.' Hiei got really close to Karuka's ear and shouted.  
  
"Get up woman!" Karuka's eyes shot open and she fell to the side.  
  
"Hey! What was that for?!" She stood up to be eye level with the fire demon.  
  
"Revenge is sweet. Come on, we need to go." He turned around and started to walk off.  
  
"Humph." Karuka followed.  
  
*~ with the others ~* (A/N sorry I haven't visited them in a bit ^_^ ;)  
  
"God! We've been looking for them for three days almost! Where could they have gone?" Yusuke groaned as he was searching for Hiei and Karuka under a rock, which was weird.  
  
"Look, I don't think we should waste any more time looking for them. I'm sure that they can hold their own out here. Now, let's finish our mission without them." Kurama said.  
  
"Good, I keep getting pricks from these thorns anyways." Kuwa said, sucking his scratched up fingers.  
  
*~ with Hiei and Karuka ~*  
  
"Your head seems to be better." Hiei said glancing over at Karuka.  
  
"And yours didn't seem to be hurt at all." Karuka kept walking.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"What do you think they decided to do?" Karuka suddenly asked out of no where.  
  
"What? Who?"  
  
"The others stupid. Do you think that they're trying to look for us, or do you think that they continued the mission without us?"  
  
"Why should I care?"  
  
"You shouldn't, with your cold heart and everything. I don't know what I was thinking asking you." Karuka flipped her hair out of her face to see what was ahead of her.  
  
Both Hiei and Karuka froze.  
  
"You felt it too?" Karuka whispered to Hiei. He nodded.  
  
"This one feels strong. Be careful." He said.  
  
"Aren't I always?" Karuka was caught by the arm and pulled into the trees.  
  
'Damn. Karma gets me again.' Karuka cut the invisible rope tied to her wrist and pushes off a tree with her feet back to her former standing place.  
  
"Nice move. Maybe next time you could put us both in danger Miss always careful." Hiei took out his sword to wait for an oncoming opponent.  
  
"Who dares enter my domain?" (A/N corny... I know)  
  
"Hansel and Gretel. Come out and look stupid!" Karuka yelled out, still defenseless from having no weapon. Then, a large bug type demon came out from the trees and attacked the two. Karuka jumped out of the way, but Hiei stayed put and attacked. He sliced through the skin of the bug 17 times but somehow it stayed alive.  
  
"Impossible. Who are you? How could you have survived that?" Hiei jumped back and stood by Karuka.  
  
"My name is Onosawato and that was quite possible, as you could see. I've studied all moves in fighting and I can perfectly defend any attack. Now, no one comes into my territory and lives." Onosawato attacked again. Hiei and Karuka dodged.  
  
"It seems territory is quite important here. Obviously they can't fight to see who is the strongest." Karuka said.  
  
"Ha! You don't know beetle demons very well do you little girl? Like I said before, I can watch an attack midway through and build my outer shell to a perfect armor. You can't get an attack in, and you can't leave till you're dead."  
  
"Ha, if you don't mind Hiei I would like to take him myself." Karuka looked ready to use a stashed away weapon but Hiei didn't see it her way.  
  
"No, you got the overpowering bear, I get the conceited bug." Hiei leapt at Onosawato again. Onosawato looked to be concentrating on something really hard, but before Hiei attacked his shell grew larger to defend Hiei lashing at him 19 times with much more force. Again, it didn't work.  
  
"Your attacks won't work. Swords are the easiest attacks to read, there's no use in trying again." Onosawato's shell shrunk and he got ready to attack Hiei.  
  
"Can I take him now?" Karuka asked.  
  
"If you're positive you can kill that annoying cockroach then fine. I want to get out of here as soon as possible." Hiei sheathed his sword and stepped back.  
  
'Maybe now would be a good time to test that new weapon of mine.' Karuka stepped forward and a long and narrow shadow came up to her arm. Then, sprouting from her right hand, her 8 foot long wooden rod appeared and she got ready to attack.  
  
"What the heck is that? A stick?" Onosawato laughed.  
  
"Do you think that you can kill him with a twig that you broke off of a tree? Get serious or I'm taking control of this fight again." Hiei said with his hand on the handle of his sword.  
  
"No. You've proven, Hiei that steel won't work in this situation. Don't you remember being a child and poking at the anthill with a stick? Well imagine that, but bigger." Karuka stepped into a fighting stance with the rod to her right.  
  
"Fine, if you wish to die humiliated that's okay, just as long as you die!" Onosawato attacked and spread his wings, flying toward Karuka. She dodged.  
  
"What? To afraid to hit me? Come on little girl, show me a fight." He flew towards Karuka who had landed on a branch and she dodged again.  
  
"What are you doing? Attack him!" Hiei yelled from the ground.  
  
'Patience stump. Patience.' Karuka landed on the ground with the rod in her left hand. She stood, ready to attack as Onosawato turned around and flew toward her.  
  
She jumped full speed towards the bug and yellow glimmered in her eyes. She brought her rod up in front of her body and brought it down as she passed Onosawato over his head as he grew his shell to defend. It connected with his shoulder and he fell to the ground, dead.  
  
"What? How did that happen? Couldn't he have grown his shell fast enough?" Hiei was dumbfounded.  
  
"Oh, he could have, but he didn't. He expected less from the rod so when he thought that he was in perfect condition to defend when he produced a stronger shell, he had actually underestimated my power and the power of the wooden rod, therefore, my attack penetrated his outer armor, connecting with his weak body, and killing him." Karuka walked back and stood in front of Hiei's surprised face.  
  
"Stop underestimating me. That's what got us here in the first place." Karuka walked past changing the rod into shadow.  
  
*~ later ~*  
  
"Think you can fish tonight?" Hiei asked Karuka as they stopped in an area to sleep for the night.  
  
"So you liked the fish? Interesting, very interesting." Karuka joked.  
  
"Shut up and answer."  
  
"Fine, but you'll build the fire. You need to start pulling your weight around here." Karuka produced her spear and walked off.  
  
Coming back, Karuka had a load of fish, and Hiei had started a fire.  
  
"At least you know how to listen." Karuka dumped the fish to the right of the fire.  
  
"Hn."  
  
"Okay, to cook them, it takes a good seven minutes on each side for a plump fish. If the fish is below normal size, you should leave each side with four to five minutes, turning them slowly 360 degrees every thirty seconds or so-" Karuka looked up at Hiei's face and could tell he wasn't getting a word of it.  
  
"Why don't I just cook them?" Hiei nodded.  
  
Karuka stuck a few good sized fish on the stick above the fire and sat down. Hiei sat next to her.  
  
"So about that stick." He started.  
  
"It's a rod." Karuka said.  
  
"Yes, a rod. So about the rod, how could it have had that amount of force?" He asked.  
  
"Well, when the person holding it swings it really, really hard-" Karuka said.  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Hn, fine. You see, anything can be strong enough to be a weapon as long as you give it the right amount of force. In the case of the wood, it has a potential to be really strong, but since it can break, I put a steel rod through the center of it to make it hold together better." Karuka turned the fish slightly.  
  
"What do you mean you put the steel rod through it?" Hiei turned his head.  
  
"Simple, I made it."  
  
"How?"  
  
"I can create almost any weapon I want with my tiger claws, and with my shadow power, I can manipulate their molecules to almost any substance known to the demon world." Karuka took the fish off the fire, and handed one to Hiei.  
  
"That could be quite powerful." He took a bite of the juicy fish.  
  
"Yes and the reason I made that was because it was easy to underestimate, like me." Karuka took a bite of her fish.  
  
"Clever." He finished off the fish, wanting more.  
  
The two actually talked a lot while they ate their large dinner. When they were done, they separated off to go and sleep.  
  
*~ the others ~*  
  
"I think I can see it." Yusuke said searching the area around him.  
  
"Let's hope so, it's almost been a week." Kurama stepped behind Yusuke looking at the scenery.  
  
"Where's Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked looking for him instead of looking at the far off building in front of him.  
  
"AH! THEY'RE ALL OVER ME! HELP! HELP!" Kuwabara appeared out of the forest covered in beetles and jumping around like a maniac.  
  
"Kuwabara! Stop fooling around and come on!" Yusuke grabbed him and pulled him nearer to the building while Kuwabara was swatting at the little bugs all over his body.  
  
*~ Hiei and Karuka ~*  
  
Hiei and Karuka were both laughing in their sleep, neither knew why.  
  
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Shade- Would you call that ironic or a coincidence? Any who... I have nothing else to say but please review... so... please review 


	18. the fun begins

Chapter 18: the fun begins  
  
Hiei and Karuka were running through the forest. It was now the seventh day of the mission (I think) and it was almost time to find the gem.  
  
"I think we'll get there just in time. We'll probably meet up with the rest by nightfall." Karuka was weaving through trees as she kept up with Hiei.  
  
"Just as long as we don't meet up with any other problems." Hiei sped off.  
  
*~ the others ~*  
  
"Okay, so we're here. Let's get that gem." Yusuke walked into the building with Kurama and Kuwabara.  
  
"Ya think they could turn a light on in here or somethin'? I can't see a thing." -BAM-  
  
"Hey Kuwabara! Keep walking!" Kuwabara had frozen in his spot.  
  
"There's someone else in the room."  
  
*~ Hiei and Karuka ~*  
  
Karuka was running on the forest floor as Hiei was jumping through the trees. The two had new respects for each other since their disappearance had actually strengthened their strange relationship. Hiei would stop underestimating her, and Karuka would stop making height jokes about him. Though, she still called him stump as a nickname. But, even with this change, they couldn't fully trust each other. They both were convicted felons after all.  
  
"I can see it." Hiei stopped to look at the far off building.  
  
"How far is it?" Karuka stopped and looked up at Hiei.  
  
"A good four miles, we should get there easily. Let's just hope the rest can hold off our opponents in time."  
  
"You don't think they can take them themselves?" Karuka asked him as he jumped from the tree to her side.  
  
"Kurama can, but his ratio of help isn't the best."  
  
"Come on." Karuka ran off with Hiei behind her.  
  
*~ the others ~*  
  
"Who's there?" Kuwabara reached to the side to find a light switch but instead found a hand. He was flung to the other side of the room and hit the wall.  
  
"Hey!" Yusuke threw a punch into air and was pulled by the collar across the room to join Kuwabara.  
  
Now it was just Kurama. He stood completely still and waited for something to move. He felt something in front of him shift and he attacked. Kurama caught nothing but air as Yusuke had done. Suddenly the lights turned on.  
  
Kurama looked to Yusuke and Kuwabara and Yusuke had turned on a light switch. Then, someone gave a strong right hook to Kurama's face.  
  
He was sent across the room to the other two and looked up to the sender of the punch. He was human looking, but the energy he was letting off told a different story. He wore a green long sleeved shirt and black pants. His hair was bleach blonde and he smiled to the three.  
  
"And who may I ask are you?" He stepped forward into the dim light to accent his pale face.  
  
"Crap, we must be late. Where are your other demons?" Yusuke stood up to seem taller to this six foot man.  
  
"Oh, they're coming later. Have you been sent by Koenma? I'm sure he's heard of my heist by now. This has been in the making for months." He stepped closer.  
  
"Months eh? You must have everything planned out." Kurama stood next to Yusuke.  
  
"Yes, I do. My helpers should be here any minute now. I was waiting for them when you showed up. Now, you never answered my question, who are you?"  
  
"Does it matter? Come on, your friends aren't here now, so we can still fight you." Yusuke stood ready to attack.  
  
"Fine, if that's what you want." He suddenly disappeared and Yusuke screamed.  
  
*~ Hiei and Karuka ~*  
  
They were about two miles away from making it to the building when a force field stopped them.  
  
"What's this?"  
  
"Where do you two think you're going?" Four average sized demons stepped from the darkness of the forest and stared at Hiei and Karuka like fresh meat.  
  
"Our luck isn't the best." Karuka stood looking at the demons before her and felt real tired of continuously being stopped.  
  
"Hn, no it's not." Hiei tried to size them up to see if these demons were good opponents. One thing he could tell, was that they weren't pushovers.  
  
"We don't want to be delayed any further so just tell us where you were going." One demon, who looked to be the leader, stepped forward.  
  
'Hm.' Karuka thought for a second.  
  
"Does the Hamisha Gem mean anything to you?" She asked trying to read their faces.  
  
"The Hamisha Gem? How do you know about that?" One demon looked at Karuka with his black eyes.  
  
"We were sent to stop you!" Karuka jumped forward and produced her claws and slashed at the demon. He disappeared and reappeared behind her and punched but she dodged. When she slashed at him a second time she connected with his throat and he instantly died. She jumped back to a fair distance away from the others and stood smiling.  
  
"If you're all this weak then I might as well get some shut eye while I'm ripping through your skin."  
  
The leader looked angrily at Karuka and wasted no time in attacking her himself. As Karuka dealt with him, Hiei wasted no time in attacking the rest. He had gotten tired of Karuka doing all the killing. He slashed through one demon, but the second proved to be harder to attack. He was quite fast, a good match for Hiei. He watched his dull green eyes, they reminded him so much of Karuka's, but hers had more emotion, hers had scars of pain and betrayal.  
  
Hiei, still watching the eyes of the demon, was caught off guard and punched in the stomach and flew back into a tree. He got angered and disappeared.  
  
"Looks like he's no fun, leaving the rest of the fight to a little girl. Oh, well, I guess he wants her to die." The demon Hiei was fighting got a little too cocky and caused Karuka's eyes to turn her deadly yellow, to show her anger. But since Karuka was occupied glaring daggers at the other demon, the one she was fighting took advantage and sent her flying into a tree trunk with a swift kick to the gut.  
  
"I don't leave a fight because my attacks haven't been working, I only see it as I haven't found the correct way to kill you." Hiei jumped from a tree he was in and attacked the demon with a blow fire of punches. The demon had a hard time dodging them all, he was hit 14 out of 15 times but he still found a way to retreat back to safety and distance from the fired up Hiei.  
  
During this time Karuka had gotten back up and took out her wooden rod to fight with. She saw it has the perfect way to kill another underestimating demon that pissed her off.  
  
"Thinking I'm weak because I have breasts and a better figure then you only leads to death, brutal, unruly death." Karuka spun the rod above her head about to attack the demon she faced when the other one caught her eye as he had taking out darts filled with poison and exposed it to the air for her to be able to smell. She could tell by just the scent that it was a deadly poison that worked and spread faster in heat, meaning that it could kill a fire demon instantly.  
  
Realizing this, she watched the demon throw the dart at the fallen Hiei who he had stunned a bit earlier and she knew if that entered his blood stream he would die. She dropped her rod and disappeared as the dart was in mid air. When Hiei finally realized that the dart held poison, he felt he didn't have enough time to move and he waited for the impact. It never happened. Hiei opened his eyes and he saw a black blur in front of him. Following the path of the blur and looking to the left he saw Karuka roll across the forest floor and when she stopped he could see the dart in Karuka's lower right arm.  
  
Karuka sat up holding her arm tightly to try and slow down the poison from spreading. She took out the dart and threw it away and grimaced in the pain of the wound. Looking at Hiei, she could see his surprised face, but looked away as the pain grew too large. She attempted to squeeze the poison out but it was no use, the adrenalin she felt from fighting the demon beforehand had risen her body temperature higher then usual which made the poison move faster, and she had no idea how much poison was in her system and how far it was down her arm. She felt that she would die from its affects that would come soon. She knew its antidote, but she also knew there was no way that someone could have it for her in time. She would have to wait for a chance that someone had it.  
  
Then, as all these thoughts of poisons, antidotes and death swirled in her head, she could see a blur in front of her, though it wasn't a blur from speed, her vision had been distorted and all she could see were blurs. She saw a large black blur attached to a long and skinny silver blur, she watched the two blurs make another blur into two as they both fell to the ground, and she saw the same thing happen with another blur. Then, the silver one disappeared and the black grew larger, but it was really just coming closer to her. Then she could see more colors, white, peach and red. The two red dots glimmered in front of her face but their appearance showed fear, even if they were blurry to Karuka. She could hear voices, but they were muffled. She didn't try to hear them clearly, she only focused on the massive pain in her arm, the focal point of her suffrage at the moment.  
  
Then, she was picked up and all went black.  
  
*~ the others ~*  
  
"Yusuke! Are you okay?" Kuwabara was holding an unconscious Yusuke as the other demon reappeared at his former standing position.  
  
"What did you do?!"  
  
"Oh, the fun has just begun." The demon walked closer to Kurama and Kuwabara just as the dim light turned out.  
  
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Shade- Sorry for the LONG awaited update but my computer hasn't been working quite well lately and I have writers block and still I have homework. But, the most important assignment is over! Night of the notables! Now I only have to memorize 160 words for my conversation in Spanish and I'll probably need more research for my science and... LA BAMBA SUCKS DICKS! That is incredibly hard to play in third position on the violin and I need to know it by next week!  
  
People- What about our problems!  
  
Shade- What problems do you have? I'm the typist! I create your problems!  
  
People- Exactly!  
  
Shade- I need to stop wasting time and do my homework... I sound like my mom  
  
Please review! You know you want to... and I want you to too! 


	19. so close

Shade- It's Shade here... to bring you you're desired 19th chapter! And just to tell you... there are going to be A LOT of cliffhangers in this story or at least I think so.  
  
People- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Shade- don't worry, by summer I will be able to have nothing to stop me from getting chapters in and the story probably will go into summer but I don't know... SO... that means that with every cliffhanger a new chapter will soon be behind it!  
  
People- YYYAAAHHH-  
  
Shade- Shut up! I need to continue the story, and if I'm not mistaken, Karuka has been injected by a deadly poison and Yusuke has been knocked out some how... SO... Hiei has to save her and Kurama and Kuwabara have to fight this guy on their own... SO... LET'S GET IT ON!  
  
Extra note: It's been a while since I've updated so I'm shoving this chapter out so it may not be one of the best but I have writers block! WAHHHH!  
  
Extra extra note: I know you guys like the story and all cuz of your reviews but if you could tell me a particular part you liked or hated would be great! It would boost my self esteem and improve my writing. Just to think about please! ahem... again... LET'S GET IT ON!  
  
Chapter 19: so close  
  
Hiei was running through the forest trying his hardest to get Karuka to Kurama so he could give her the desired antidote. All the way though, he couldn't help but wonder why she did it? Why would she put herself in front of that dart just to have a chance to die in the end? Could she have a deeper respect for Hiei than he thought? All these questions ceased in his head as the building came into view.  
  
'They should be in there by now.' Hiei sped off towards the opening of the building.  
  
with others   
  
"Your friend won't be around for a little while. So why don't we start now?" The demon's voice echoed in the dark room making it seem that he was everywhere.  
  
"What did you do to him?!" Kuwabara said.  
  
"Oh nothing really, he'll just die within the next half hour if he isn't cured of the poison I gave him."  
  
"Poison?!" Kuwabara exclaimed looking down at Yusuke. (A/N yeah... he's poisoned too... hehehe)  
  
"Yes, my group's specialty is poison. You will need to get that antidote quickly for him to recover." The darkness still engulfed everyone so Kurama and Kuwabara couldn't tell if the demon was in the same spot as before, or if he was in position to breathe down their necks.  
  
"Fine, I'll fight you. Here Kurama, you take Yusuke and try to find the antidote." Kuwa handed Yusuke over to Kurama. At this point Kuwabara would be the best candidate to fight the demon. He could just use his spirit awareness to find him.  
  
"Ok let's go freaky demon dude!" Kuwabara stood ready for an oncoming force.  
  
As Kuwabara began to face off with the demon Kurama searched for an appropriate antidote.  
  
'Hm... let's see... the scent of the poison tells me it moves faster in a warmer body,' (A/N sound familiar?) Kurama stopped to feel Yusuke's forehead, 'He seems cooler than usual... good.' Kurama searched through all that he had for the antidote as Kuwabara was still fighting the invisible man.  
  
"AH!" Kuwa screamed out in pain as he was cut on the arm. It seemed that the other demon had taken control of the fight from the beginning. Kuwabara was getting badly hurt.  
  
"Kurama! Do you have it yet? AH!" Kuwabara was cut again. It seemed that the demon's main weapons were daggers.  
  
"Almost..." Kurama searched through all he had.  
  
"Got it! And there's just enough left for one person!" Kurama popped the top off and slipped the green liquid into Yusuke's mouth. Then, Kuwabara was rammed into the wall right next to Kurama.  
  
"Are you okay Kuwabara?" Kurama asked him.  
  
"Yeah... I'm fine. How's Yusuke?"  
  
"Recovering. I'll take the rest of the fight okay?" Kurama looked at Kuwabara's scratched up face.  
  
"Okay!" At that exact moment Kuwabara fell unconscious.  
  
'Looks like it's up to me.' Kurama stood and looked at Yusuke as he began to stir.  
  
"You may have saved him but it will be awhile till he comes to so don't expect any help from him." The eerie voice floated around the still dark room surrounding Kurama.  
  
"I shouldn't think so. I know he won't be conscious for awhile. I should know... I gave him the antidote." Kurama slightly smiled trying to track the demon's well hid energy.  
  
"You'll go down just as fast as that lump of filth." The demon said before attacking with his daggers again. Kurama saw a spark of light in the corner of his eye and dodged. He was safe for the time being.  
  
Hiei and Karuka   
  
Hiei was searching through the building searching for an efficient energy signal to follow. He had two leads but they disappeared fast and his third did the same. He didn't know the first two were Kuwabara and Yusuke falling unconscious and the third was Kurama cloaking his energy from the other demon in the dark. None the less, Hiei was getting worried that he wouldn't be able to find them in time to save Karuka. He kept up his search trying to link to another energy source to follow that might be theirs.  
  
Kurama   
  
"Dodged it huh? Well that won't happen again." The demo tried to attack again but Kurama successfully dodged because of a glare on the steel of the dagger.  
  
'Crap! Where is that light coming from? No matter, I'll just have to watch where I place my daggers.' The demon stopped a moment to think before he was attacked by Kurama.  
  
"Rose whip!" Kurama's whip hit the demon in the face dead on though not killing him. Because of this sudden attack, the demon let down his guard allowing his energy to be read.  
  
Hiei and Karuka   
  
'There's something! An odd energy coming from in there!' Hiei ran towards a door and shoved it open. What he saw was Kurama and another demon on the ground with the light he let in.  
  
"Hiei?! Where have you two been?!" Kurama was surprised to see them... especially Karuka in Hiei's arms.  
  
"There's no time! Karuka's been injected with a poison by some goons from the forest." Hiei set Karuka down on the floor as Kurama came over using the time he had with the fallen demon.  
  
Kurama smelled her breath.  
  
"This is the same poison that was in Yusuke." Kurama's eyes opened wider.  
  
"Well then give her the antidote." Hiei looked worried. (A/N weird... I know)  
  
"I used the rest of the antidote on Yusuke." Kurama looked at Hiei.  
  
"There's none left." Before either Kurama or Hiei could react the other demon got up.  
  
"He he he. It looks like my helpers were held up a bit. At least they did something right. At least now I can see your attack like you could see mine. We're even."  
  
"How long has she had that in her system?" Kurama asked.  
  
"At least twenty five minutes. Why?" Hiei was getting skittish now.  
  
"That particular poison will take full affect after thirty minutes. I'm sorry but Karuka's going to die." Kurama stepped back towards a smiling opponent turning away from a confused Hiei.  
  
He didn't know what he should feel like. He didn't know her for that long, but he knew so much about her. She almost killed him, but she also saved his life. He didn't know how to handle her soon to be death.  
  
"Shall we continue? Or is the oncoming death of your friend to much?" The demon raised his arms into the air making a questionable shrug with a smile on his face. Kurama had an angry expression on as he got ready to attack.  
  
With Hiei he was thinking of when she would die.  
  
'That particular poison will take full affect after thirty minutes.'  
  
'I was running for at least ten minutes and searching for fifteen. She'll die within five minutes.' Hiei still didn't know how to handle it. He was still surprised that nothing could save her. He accepted the end, and stood to watch Kurama if he needed help.  
  
'She's going to die. And after all of that.' Hiei turned away and watched Kurama's fight.  
  
"Rose whip slash!" (A/N I still don't know his attacks... sorry again)  
  
The demon dodged and attacked with his daggers which Kurama also dodged. It seemed that they were equally matched as long as a light was provided. The fight was, none the less, boring. Hiei kept fighting the urge to look back at her until he gave in glanced back. His eyes widened. Karuka had moved at least three feet from where Hiei put her and Yusuke and Kuwabara were still asleep. She had to of moved herself. Then Karuka's head titled up looking towards Yusuke. Now Hiei could hear her heavy breathing and watched her pull herself closer and closer to Yusuke.  
  
"Kurama!" Hiei yelled out in shock watching her crawl across the floor with most of her needed energy gone.  
  
Kurama looked back after dodging yet another attack. He saw Karuka move across the floor very slowly. He made a stunner attack to stun the demon for a bit so he could watch her. He walked to Hiei who was about to go help her but held him back.  
  
"Let her go." Kurama was watching what she was doing.  
  
"But-"  
  
"Let her go." Kurama said more sternly. Hiei obeyed.  
  
There were two minutes left till the poison would take full affect and neither Kurama nor Hiei knew how to save her still. But Karuka was trying to do something... but what? As she neared Yusuke's unconscious body she reached out and grabbed hold of his chest. She pulled her self as close as she could then... she began.  
  
A black light surrounded her hands and she converted them to shadow and reached towards Yusuke's mouth. Coming out she took one last gasp of breath as a shadow went up her torso and covered her mouth. She had no time left. The thirty minutes were up. Then, she fell unconscious. Kurama and Hiei feared the worst. They thought Karuka was dead, her half hour was up... wasn't it?  
  
cough, cough Karuka gasped for breath before her head tilted to the side. Then, a liquid streamed out of her mouth.  
  
"What?" Kurama ran over to her and checked on the liquid. Blood? Spit?  
  
"It's the antidote!" Kurama's and Hiei's eyes went wide and Hiei ran to Kurama's side.  
  
"What?" Hiei asked.  
  
"The antidote I gave to Yusuke! She must have taken it out of his system and treated herself with it." Kurama looked completely amazed.  
  
"She's alive!"  
  
Shade- Whew! It has been a LONG time since I updated but here it is! Remember I said I was shoving this chapter out so it may not be the best. And remember, if you are going to review (which I surly know you will ) please include something you liked best or hated worst! Or both!  
  
People- To-many-exclamation points! AHHHH! AHHHHH  
  
Shade- Whatever... and shut up! (he he) you'll scare them away with your ugly faces! Here throws sacks at them  
  
People- Fine  
  
Shade- Want to know something funny? I was originally going to have Karuka KISS Yusuke to get the antidote! But I changed it... funny huh?  
  
People- through sacks EEEWWWWWW  
  
Shade- Please review! (he he) 


	20. more water sir?

Shade- duuuuuuhhhhh? brain dead please read and enjoy... and if you don't enjoy just pretend to... duuuuuuhhhhhh  
  
Chapter 20: more water sir?  
  
Hiei knelt down looking at Karuka's flustered face. Her light breathing truly indicated that she would live. He smirked inside thinking of her shuffle across the floor to Yusuke. She must have been able to hear his whole conversation to know about Yusuke and the antidote. He stood and looked down at Kurama.  
  
"Looks like she'll be ok with time to heal." Kurama stood too still with his eyes on Karuka.  
  
"You know Hiei," he looked toward his friend, "you seemed quite scared finding out Karuka might have died."  
  
Hiei sensed the sarcasm in Kurama's voice hinting him towards "something" he was joking about.  
  
"You said she would die. Not might die. Keep that in mind." Hiei tried to get the "something" off of Kurama's mind.  
  
"You still have a fight to finish. He looks weak, I'll let you finish while I look for the gem." Hiei walked toward the open door he burst through just a few minutes earlier. While walking, he paused and took one last look at Karuka's frail body keeping an eye on Kurama to see that he was not in fact looking.  
  
"My opponent is beginning to wake up it seems." Kurama looked at the fallen demon. Then, he got ready for attack...  
  
with Hiei   
  
'If the gem has the power to cast floods on whole cities then it should produce an energy signal.' Hiei walked down the corridors of the building.  
  
Hiei looked to his left and saw a big bolted up door. Inside was the Hamisha Gem.  
  
"Well if you make it that conspicuous..." Hiei walked toward the door and slammed it open.  
  
"I should have the right to take it." He had his hand that he punched the door out with in the air. He saw a faint blue light in the distance.  
  
'The gem.' Hiei walked to the light with his arm out in front of him to grab it.  
  
As Hiei neared the light its brightness made the shape of it come in focus and it seemed to be the shape of a slanted rain drop. The light emitting from its core cast a glow upon Hiei's face. His eyes grew wide as he entered its energy cage. He began to be pulled in but kept up enough strength just to grab it. Its light slowly disappeared as Hiei stared in its glory of power.  
  
'Time to get back to Kurama.' Hiei turned around and went back the way he came. (A/N I didn't want to make Hiei getting the gem so incredibly hard because I wanted to get this chapter out soon. Out of all my stories it's probably my favorite just because I've thought deeper into it than the others and it is the first I wrote... hm... what if I do this! Please don't hate me?)  
  
"Stupid place. This mission was a big bust of stupidity. This dumb city is a waste of space keeping this gem under virtually zero security. I'm surprised no one has stolen it by now. It has no reason to keep a gem of this stature or even exist at that matter.'  
  
As Hiei searched for the correct passage way a certain energy grew larger in his hands. The gem began to glow violently and it slowed Hiei's light walking to hard struggling.  
  
"Its- power!-It's too-strong!" Hiei tried to let go of the gem and release it from his hands but its power was too much. Then the sound of crashing water filtered through Hiei's ears...  
  
with Kurama   
  
"AH!" Kurama struck his whip down one final time and defeated the demon. (A/N I REALLY didn't want to make another fight scene right now... sorry)  
  
"You haven't really defeated me." The demon looked up at Kurama's flustered face from the fight.  
  
"What do you mean?" Kurama asked in an over pretentious voice.  
  
"There are more people above me that are now out for you and your friends' blood. By the death of me, you've opened up a new problem for the spirit world. A deadly one." Then, the demon lost breath, and perished.  
  
'What does he mean?' But before Kurama could figure out what the words meant he heard the sound of crashing water. He turned around and the door that stood behind him broke down and water cascaded through its opening. Kurama was tripped by the water and he was taken away with it. Just as Karuka, Yusuke and Kuwabara were too.  
  
"The guys! They're still unconscious!" Kurama's lungs were getting full of water as he fought to stay afloat. He grabbed after the others to try and save them. First he grabbed Karuka and swam her to a high place in the room. Then he went for Kuwabara. After depositing Kuwa next to Karuka he grabbed Yusuke who passed by.  
  
"Hiei?!" Kurama spotted a dark figure and saw that it was Hiei. He dived into the water and sawn to Hiei.  
  
"Hiei!" He yelled seeing if he was conscious or not.  
  
"Kurama! The gem-! Its power-!" Hiei couldn't finish. He ducked under the water and swan towards the others with Kurama as what seemed to be a no ending waterfall.  
  
"Where has all this water come from?" Kurama asked Hiei as the water began to rise.  
  
"I think-" Hiei stuttered as the gems power was still having an effect on him.  
  
"I think it came from the gem." He was breathing hard as he looked at Kurama for his response.  
  
"The gem? You think the gem did this?" Kurama asked.  
  
"There's a flood isn't there?" Hiei looked at Kurama to show that he most likely wasn't lying. So, wasting no time, each Kurama and Hiei took someone to swim out the building with. (A/N you can guess yourself who carries who)  
  
"I'll go back and get Kuwabara. You get Karuka and Yusuke as far away as possible." Kurama went back wading in the water that would soon take over the whole city.  
  
Hiei grabbed both Yusuke and Karuka and dragged them away from the center of the flood as fast as he could.  
  
with Kurama   
  
Kurama trudged through the water as it splashed in his face searching for Kuwabara. He looked forward and saw that the water was nearing Kuwabara. So he went faster in his attempt to save him. He neared Kuwabara's body and wrapped him over his shoulders. He walked quickly out of the building to get to dry land... or just land in general would work too.  
  
Kurama got outside with Kuwabara and spotted Hiei 100 yards away in a tree and went after him trying to beat out the flood. When Kurama got to the foot of the tree there was about a foot and a half of water around his legs. He jumped up to Hiei.  
  
"What will we do? We can't get all three of them out of this flood by ourselves, and on foot." Kurama, with wet clothes and hair sticking to his body and same with Hiei (A/N You can imagine yourselves what that looks like... that's what I'm doing... thinking drooling)  
  
"We each can take one but what about the third?" They sat in the tree breathing heavily trying to think of a way to make this work when...  
  
"Hello boys. Oh my! What's going on?" Botan suddenly appeared in front of the guys on her magical flying oar.  
  
"There's no time to explain. Botan, can you take Karuka while we take Kuwabara and Yusuke out of this flood?" Kurama asked the ferry girl.  
  
"Of course I can. Here get her body on fast." Botan turned her oar so the guys could deposit Karuka on the end of it.  
  
"Ok, now we'll take Yusuke and Kuwabara."  
  
"Good. You'll need to hurry, the flood is rising." Botan looked one last time then took off with Karuka.  
  
"Let's make this work." Kurama said as Hiei nodded and got Yusuke over his shoulders. Kurama did the same with Kuwabara. They both took off running through the trees trying to get out of that city as fast as possible.  
  
somewhere else (with Kurama and Hiei)  
  
"Kurama stop." Hiei suddenly stopped.  
  
"But Hiei, the flood will take us out." Kurama looked back in question.  
  
"No it won't." Hiei stood firm as the rushing water he was trying to beat was rumbling toward him. Hiei squinted when the tidal wave like movements of the flood cascaded closer and closer to him. Kurama looked in surprise when the 40 mile per hour water abruptly stopped four feet away from where Hiei stood.  
  
"What?" Kurama's jaw opened widely as he stared at the water just standing up as if it had been stopped by Plexiglas in an aquarium.  
  
"How can it do that?"  
  
"The power of the Hamisha Gem causes it to cover a whole city in water. Where I stand right now is four feet out of the city the flood was cast upon." Hiei stared out at the top of the body of water remembering when Karuka flew over the ocean in their first encounter.  
  
"You sound like me when you say that." Kurama smiled as did Hiei when Yusuke and Kuwabara started to come around.  
  
"Huh? What's going on?" Yusuke slowly opened his eyes.  
  
"You almost died." Hiei dropped Yusuke to the ground and crossed his arms.  
  
"Ow! That hurt! Oh... why does my head hurt so much?" Yusuke asked rubbing it.  
  
"That's probably the effect of the antidote to the poison that was injected into you." Kurama set down Kuwabara lightly as he woke up too.  
  
"Whoa, what's up with that water?" Kuwabara arched his head up to see the still standing glassy liquid.  
  
"We should get back as soon as possible. Botan has Karuka." Kurama walked off toward the way back. The rest followed. Yusuke and Kuwabara of Course slowed them down seeing as Kuwabara was asking stupid questions and Yusuke kept talking about his pained head.  
  
Koenma's office   
  
The four boys walked into the office to see a worried Koenma and Botan and a bored looking Karuka.  
  
"Good, you're ok. By the way Botan described it made me worry."  
  
"We're fine Koenma." Yusuke said.  
  
"Oh you're fine when we get back to spirit world but the whole walk back you can't help but whine." Kuwabara said as he went to sit down next to Karuka.  
  
Karuka looked at Kuwabara in disgust, "yes, it seemed that the flood was quite big, or as Botan explained it, 'oh dear god, that water is going to devour them and they will be killed.'" Karuka switched to her shadow form and moved across the floor and came out of the floor to stand at the wall.  
  
"Wait a minute, I said that to myself on the way back. How did you hear me?" Botan asked.  
  
"I was still conscious when you were flying, which means that I could hear you. Never before in my life have I loved the fact that my ears worked." Botan made a confused face but Hiei and Kurama knew exactly what she meant.  
  
"Well, now that everyone's ok, where is the gem?" Koenam asked.  
  
"Right here." Hiei put out his arm and showed the blue gem.  
  
"Great, ogre, take that to a safe place." Koenma told the ogre.  
  
"One thing I don't understand is why there was a flood? Did you do that Hiei?" Kurama asked.  
  
"Sort of, I guess some things are close calls in consideration of wanting the destruction of a city." He said from the dark corner.  
  
"The only downside was that the city destroyed was a very rich city with many suppliers of money and other such things." Koenma told them.  
  
"Oh well for them, they should know what it's like to live through a tragic disaster once in a while." Yusuke said rubbing his head.  
  
"Hey Karuka," she looked toward Kurama, "Why doesn't your head hurt like Yusuke's does? You were treated with the same antidote and poison as Yusuke was and his head was in pain for a great deal of time."  
  
"I don't show coverable pain." She looked at the floor.  
  
"Well, good work to all of you. I'll call when another mission comes up. Yusuke, Kuwabara, you can go back to the human world. Hiei, Kurama, you can go to the demon world. Karuka, you stay here with me and Botan." Koenma started to shuffle some papers when Yusuke and Kuwabara started to leave and Karuka rolled her eyes.  
  
"I'll be outside." Karuka left the room with Kurama, Hiei, Koenma and Botan still inside.  
  
"Well she's still on the outskirts of insanity working with you guys isn't she?" Koenam asked the remaining detectives.  
  
"Her? What about us? She hasn't been a complete rose to work with. All thorns I say."  
  
"Now Hiei that isn't very nice thing to say." Botan told him.  
  
"Oh well. Good work, to you two especially." Kurama and Hiei nodded and left.  
  
Shade- Well, there's another chapter that I hope you enjoyed. Please review! (Please?) 


	21. the other gems

Chapter 21: the other gems  
  
"Kurama, Hiei, I told you, you can go." Koenma stood behind his desk sorting papers.  
  
"Yes Koenma, of course." Kurama smiled and left the office with Hiei.  
  
outside   
  
"I think I'll go and talk with Karuka before I go." Kurama said.  
  
"Fine." Hiei disappeared among the trees.  
  
Kurama walked around looking for Karuka and found her sitting at the edge of a cliff. He stood next her and sat down.  
  
"Are you okay Karuka?" Kurama asked her.  
  
"Yes, I am fine." Karuka had her eyes closed and her head pointed down as she sat cross legged in the light of the setting sun.  
  
"Your energy levels seem to tell a different story." Kurama looked at Karuka as her eyes suddenly opened but her head stayed pointed down.  
  
"That must have been a tough mission for you. It being your second one after all." Kurama knew he was razor thin to getting Karuka to tell the truth of how she felt at the time.  
  
"As you said," Kurama leaned back and looked at the sun, "you don't show coverable pain. I have a feeling that you're covering more than head pain." Karuka finally looked up from the ground and out toward the sun.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about." Karuka refused to give in to her pain that she felt, the physical and otherwise.  
  
"The poison is having the same effect on you as it is Yusuke. Your head is in tremendous pain. And the antidote hurts you too, doesn't it?" Kurama looked at Karuka who still stared at the sun in envy. She thought, if only she could be burning alive right now... she wouldn't have these problems.  
  
"No." Karuka refused to admit it, even though they both knew he was right.  
  
"Fine then," Kurama stood up and brushed the dirt off of his clothes, "I guess we have nothing to worry about." He smile down at her and walked off to go back to the demon world.  
  
Karuka sat contemplating. The wind blew her hair out of her face and the shining sun made her pale eyes glow. If you looked hard enough you could see the brewing pain rummaging around inside her body from inside her eyes. She titled her head to gaze at the moon. In its brightness of wonder, memories flooded back to her, but not childhood memories, recent ones. She thought of the times she spent with the guys, as she fought with them and worked together. It felt strange to her, being on a team. After her family's deaths, she was only a loner, no one understood her problems. No one, but her.  
  
'When this time of my life ends it will become normal again. I will disappear like all the times before. No one wants me, they just get stuck with me.' Karuka closed her eyes again and lowered her head. She had her palms touching the ground through the hole she made with her crossed legs. She opened her eyes, stood up and turned around. With a last look at the sky, Karuka turned her waist around keeping her feet set pointing toward the forest and grabbed her hair to keep it out of her face. She looked up at the moon and something twinkled in her eye. She made no emotion to show her feelings as she shut them once again. Letting go of her hair, allowing it to blow in her face, she turned around and walked into the shadows with her eyes still closed.  
  
next day   
  
"Karuka hasn't come in yet. I went outside to find her and she was just sitting and staring at the sky." Botan stood in Koenma's office looking out the window searching for Karuka's faint shadow. She did not find it.  
  
"I'm sure she is okay. We have nothing to worry about. No new missions have come in and I don't expect any to anyways."  
  
"And why is that lord Koenma?" Botan looked back to the baby.  
  
"Because," Koenma looked at Botan, "because of the Hamisha gem incident, security has been upped a few levels all over the demon world. Now it's harder than ever to try and steal anything."  
  
"Oh, well, that's good I guess." Botan looked back out the window and was surprised to see Karuka coming toward the building.  
  
"Karuka's coming." Botan said.  
  
"Why? I didn't notify her to come." Koenma looked questioned as he came around his desk and looked out the window.  
  
They waited for her to come up. And when she did, what she said first shocked them.  
  
"I want out." Karuka stood at the open door with a dead face on surprising the two.  
  
"What?" Koenma asked.  
  
"After another big mission like this, I want out. I know I've been sentenced to five but I figure for what I did deserves two counts." Karuka put up two fingers in the air trying to convince the others.  
  
"What did you do?"  
  
"Saved the stump's life."  
  
'The stump?' Botan wondered as Koenma and Karuka kept talking.  
  
"If I risk my life for another again I want my accounts lifted." Karuka stood looking down at the baby as if she was the ruler over him.  
  
"I cannot do that Karuka." Koenma was stopped by Karuka grabbing his shirt collar and bringing him up to her level.  
  
"If you don't let me go after one more mission I swear I will snap. I can kill your detectives, and now I have nothing to keep me from doing so." Karuka's eyes were now yellow and Koenma knew she wasn't joking. So, fearing her, he gave in and told her fine.  
  
"Okay, okay. You can go after one more mission." Karuka looked at him a bit longer, only keeping his face a few inches from her own, she saw the truth in his eyes. She let him drop to the floor.  
  
"Good. That is all I desire to leave this place." Karuka turned around and left.  
  
"Koenma sir! Are you all right?" Botan ran over to Koenma on the ground.  
  
"Yes, yes I am quite fine."  
  
"Oh good." Botan then hit Koenma over the head.  
  
"What in the world do you think you're doing telling Karuka that?!" Botan yelled.  
  
"Botan! How dare you hit me like that!" Koenma screamed holding the new bump on his head.  
  
"When Karuka finds out you lied like that she will... well... KILL you!" Botan said throwing her arms in the air.  
  
"Don't worry Botan! Crime life is slow now and by the next mission she will have forgotten." Koenma explained.  
  
"Oh, do you think she will do that?"  
  
"I am sure of it." Koenma told her.  
  
"Oh I hope so." Botan looked out the window one last time and saw Karuka's long shadow creep across the forest floor.  
  
With Karuka   
  
'Damn head.' Karuka held her head in slight pain.  
  
'Little did Kurama know, I didn't get as much antidote as Yusuke did, which was really the cause of both our pain. Looks like the great fox thief is losing it.' Karuka smiled that she had more secrets to keep.  
  
'I knew he was Youko Kurama from the moment his scent entered my nose.' Karuka stepped back and leapt into the trees to take a nap.  
  
later   
  
Karuka was still asleep. She really didn't want to wake up. The nap was too comfortable. Karuka stirred in her sleep, right before she woke up.  
  
'Damn, that was a good nap.' Karuka sat up and shook her head to wake up more.  
  
'When's another mission gonna come by? I need to get out of this place.' Karuka leaned back onto the tree she slept by and started to think more.  
  
'Looks like my head is better now.' Karuka cracked open her left eye and looked up as she touched the back of her head.  
  
'I'm so bored, hopefully a case will come by soon so I can get out of here. On the other hand, I still am not fully recovered. That poison had a good one on me, it'll take a while for my power back at this time of the month.' Karuka's thoughts were halted when she heard the cracking of a twig behind her.  
  
She shot up to her feet and sped in front of the thing only to put down her fists and sigh.  
  
"Hello stump." She said to Hiei.  
  
"What are you doing here?" She sat back down on the opposite side of where she was previously sitting against the tree.  
  
"Koenma called me. He seemed really fumed. Don't know why." Hiei had his hands in his pockets looking down at Karuka.  
  
"Really? He didn't call me." Karuka crossed her arms.  
  
"Maybe it's something about you." Hiei then walked by her toward Koenma's office.  
  
"You aren't coming? I thought the humans were the only ones who ditched." He looked back at Karuka who still hadn't moved to try and visit Koenma.  
  
"He never called, so I won't go." She said.  
  
Hiei smirked, "fine." He turned around and left Karuka to sit and think.  
  
'My energy is not high enough to fight. I guess it would be best for the next mission to be later rather than sooner.'  
  
Koenma's office   
  
"So Koenma, is there another mission or something?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"Wait, there can't be, Karuka isn't here. Why?" Kuwabara asked looking around the room searching for a moving shadow just in case.  
  
"I called you four here because of Karuka." Koenma was in his teenage form and sitting at his desk.  
  
"What about her?" Kurama asked as Hiei rose an eyebrow.  
  
"She has requested her leave after one more mission." Koenma said.  
  
"Well you told her no right? She has more than one mission till her thefts are lifted right?" Yusuke asked Koenma.  
  
"Actually, I said yes to her proposal." The four boys looked up in shock.  
  
"What?! Why did you tell her yes?" Kuwabara wanted to know.  
  
"Well... because..."  
  
"Because she threatened you guys and him." Botan finished for Koenma.  
  
"What?! You gave in because she threatened you? How weak are you?!" Yusuke yelled as he slammed his hands on the table.  
  
"Don't worry Yusuke! After Hiei got the Hamisha Gem with such ease, security has been advanced since then and crime has gone way down. Another mission isn't likely to happen any time soon." Koenma was hunched over hugging his knees behind his desk. Yusuke lightened his angered look and took his hands off the desk and backed up.  
  
"Really? But when our next mission comes won't she want the same thing?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"That's where you guys come in." Koenma stood up.  
  
"Karuka proposed that if she saves one of you she should be able to go. So, if you four keep safe and don't get in any danger, Karuka will have nothing to save. On your next mission she will be looking for any chance to save your lives. But if there is none. She can, and will play out her full time."  
  
"Ok, if that was all, then I guess we can go, right?"  
  
"Of course, I just wanted you to watch out. You may leave now." Koenma waved them all off.  
  
"Well that was a waste." Yusuke whispered into Kuwabara's ear with his hand. Kuwa nodded.  
  
outside   
  
"Kurama, what are you doing?" Hiei asked Kurama as he stood in a 'thinking' position.  
  
"Oh nothing." Kurama turned around smiling his cover smile to make it look like there was truly nothing. After all the years, that didn't fool Hiei any more but he let it go and let Kurama continue.  
  
"I'll be in the demon world." Hiei then disappeared.  
  
Kurama, returning to his thinking, wondered what the demon he fought meant from before.  
  
"There are more people above me that are now out for you and your friends' blood. By the death of me, you've opened up a new problem for the spirit world. A deadly one."  
  
'What did he mean?' Kurama wondered.  
  
'Could it be anything important? I hope not.'  
  
Kurama popped out of his thoughts and went after Hiei. When he did catch him he was surprised to see that Hiei had heard his thoughts.  
  
"So, you think that lowly demon was telling the truth?" Hiei said.  
  
"No, not exactly. It's just, he meant something." Kurama still couldn't figure it out.  
  
"I think you're losing your touch Kurama." Hiei smiled.  
  
"Oh no Hiei," Kurama smiled back, "A fox never loses his touch."  
  
"Then try and think harder Kurama, just think harder."  
  
"Can do." Kurama turned around and headed off toward Koenma's office.  
  
"Kurama, where are you going?"  
  
"Back to Koenma's for some answers."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Kurama headed back through the doors and entered Koenma's office.  
  
"Kurama? What are you doing here?" Koenma asked.  
  
"I came for some questions Koenma." He said walking forward.  
  
"Fine, go ahead." He said.  
  
"Is the Hamisha Gem in any relationship with anything else?" Kurama asked.  
  
"Well let's see, I do remember something about there being other gems of the elements. Obviously The Hamisha Gem was water. Why?"  
  
"Well that demon I fought during the mission said something about there being other demons above him that would be looking for us. What do you think that means?"  
  
"Hm, well the gems together do make a lethal power of the Earth. The others, ground, wind, fire, sun and snow, have similar effects such as the Hamisha. Together they can destroy as much as the holder wants. If the gems are in the same room together they can kill all the others that brought it there. They cannot be tamed or controlled." Koenma said, looking all "intellectual".  
  
"Uh, Koenma?" Kurama asked.  
  
"Yes Kurama?" Koenma strutted around looking "cool".  
  
"Did you memorize that from the file?"  
  
Koenma just looked at him.  
  
"Yes, yes I did." Kurama smiled at this.  
  
"Yes, well thank you Koenma." Kurama then left.  
  
Koenma looked a bit stupid as he was about to leave the office before a phone call stopped him. He walked over and picked it up. Listening to the scared man on the other line, he stared in fear to the information he was being told. He put down the phone in shock.  
  
"Kurama!" He called. Kurama ran in.  
  
"What is it Koenma?" He looked worried.  
  
"The other gems are in danger. You need to get the others." He told him. Kurama nodded and left the room in a hurry.  
  
'Another mission has come up, the guys will need to watch out not only for Karuka, but for whoever the heck is cracking through the new security.'  
  
Koenma waited patiently for the five fighters to walk through the door so he could explain their next mission.  
  
Shade- Please review 


	22. problems

Shade- I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho  
  
Note: Sorry I've taken so long to update my stories but when you go on vacation for two weeks your mind gets jumbled and a sense of bliss falls over your body saying 'don't type today, you don't have to, besides... YOU GOT WRITERS BLOCK!' but I told that sense of bliss to shut up and continued to type so to everyone (especially Dolphin) here you go!  
  
Chapter 22:  
  
'Hiei, are you there?' Kurama tried talking to Hiei telepathically.  
  
'Yes Kurama, what is it?' He answered back.  
  
'You need to come back now. But before you should get Karuka.'  
  
'Why? Is there another mission?'  
  
"Yes, I'll get Yusuke and Kuwabara. You find Karuka.' Kurama closed his mind as he ran out of the long hallway to try and find Botan.  
  
Hiei was already near the same site where he had talked to Karuka a little while ago. Searching around, he figured she had moved, most likely to the cliff, so he walked that way.  
  
As he came through the thick trees to the cliff he stopped wide eyed and hid behind a tree. He bent over to look beyond his standing point to look at Karuka. She was sitting cross legged at the edge of the cliff as she did a lot with two buckets of ice cold water at her side. She also had her shirt off and most of the bandages that she applied to her back were untangled and lying on the ground. The only part of the bandages that covered her were in the middle, covering her breasts.  
  
As Hiei looked on he couldn't help but stare. All over her back, were scars. As Hiei stared at them he watched Karuka pick up one bucket of water and pour it over her back. She sat for a few seconds to let the sensation cool over her. When she felt it was okay, she took the other bucket and took more bandages out of it to wrap her self. Soaking wet, she slowly worked her way up from her waist to just below her armpits as she pulled the old bandages off and dropped them to the ground. She sat for another five minutes to let the feeling come back to her. Sitting and thinking, she frowned.  
  
'And to think, after all these years, I still need to be reminded of it all.' Slowly she started to stand up and put her shirt back on. Hiei disappeared into a tree and ran back through them as far as he thought was fine. He jumped to the ground and walked toward Karuka again.  
  
"Hiei? What are you doing here?" She asked him when he came by, clueless of what he had seen.  
  
"Come with me, we have another mission." Hiei, expecting Karuka to light up with all the excitement she possibly could, was surprised when she actually looked sad. Either way, she followed him to Koenma.  
  
'Damn it. I told myself I couldn't fight after all this. There's no way I can produce enough energy for the ability to fight so soon. One thing I have as a weakness is recovery.' Karuka, with her arms crossed, was watching the back of Hiei's head in boredom.  
  
"Kurama seemed quite serious when he told me to get you." Hiei told her, refusing to turn around.  
  
"Then it must be a pretty important mission." She said aloud, trying not to reveal her pissed off side through her voice.  
  
"Hn." Hiei said. They kept quiet till they got back to the office. Everyone was inside.  
  
"What's with the long faces?" Karuka asked. Since she and Hiei took so long, Koenma had already started to explain the issue at hand.  
  
"Your next mission is quite an important one. You're, of course, familiar with the Santifugi and Hamisha gems." Koenma started.  
  
"Yes." Hiei said, as Karuka was thinking the same thing.  
  
"Well they're all apart of the same family. The elemental family that is. Obviously, the Hamisha was water and the Santifugi was sun, having the affect to cast a heat wave over any city destroying it, like the Hamisha with water."  
  
"But I thought the Santifugi gem could destroy light. How could it have the effect of a heat wave?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"There are two abilities to each gem. If used to destroy a city, it will cast its main element on that city. Although, if destroyed, the element in general will, too, be destroyed. Just like Karuka wanted with the Santifugi gem." Koenma informed, making a hand movement towards Karuka.  
  
"Which would of course been 'the wrong hands'." Botan added on.  
  
"So what's the problem?" Karuka asked, anticipated.  
  
"All the gems are in great danger. Apparently what Kurama told me was true. There were more people wanting these gems. But not just some of them. All of them." Koenma pressed a button on his desk making a picture come up on the screen in front of him.  
  
"These are the six elemental jewels. Ground, wind, fire, sun, snow and water." He said pointing to them each individually. The ground gem was a brown diamond shaped jewel with a green glow in the center. The wind gem was in the shape of a sphere. It was completely clear all the way through besides a yellow glowing energy in its center. The fire gem had a red glow inside of an orange colored flame shaped jewel. The snow was completely white having a blue glow and the shape of a snow flake. (The other two just try and remember)  
  
"If the ground gem were to be used, an earthquake would occur. But, if it is destroyed, all vegetation would die. In use of the wind gem, a windstorm would take the city. If destroyed, pollution would fill all the worlds." Before Koenma could continue, Kuwabara interrupted him.  
  
"So, if they're destroyed then the affect is bigger and worse." He said.  
  
"Correct, and we need to get those gems as fast as possible."  
  
"But it took us a week to get one. How are we gonna get the other five?" Yusuke asked.  
  
"Now remember Yusuke, we already have the Santifugi gem, which is sun." Kurama reminded him.  
  
"So four are left." Kuwa said.  
  
"Ground, wind, fire, and snow." Kurama said aloud, reminding everyone.  
  
"Koenma," Yusuke started to asked, "Which gem is in trouble now?"  
  
"The fire gem. It is currently located in a city in the north of Makai. Its' name is Dainubo. Famous for it's' museums."  
  
"I know that city. It's filled with priceless artifacts, and its security is no joke too." Hiei put into the conversation.  
  
"Well that is where you will be heading soon. I got a call from one of the museum managers just ten minutes ago. You should be heading out soon. Go, go now." Koenma told them with a stern face.  
  
All five left in a hurry to go and save the fire gem from being stolen.  
  
"Koenma, what about Karuka?" Botan asked.  
  
"We can't worry about her now. All I hope is that she doesn't try anything funny." Koenma picked up the phone trying to call the museum again. He looked at Botan with the receiver at his ear.  
  
"Besides, she actually looked serious this time." He looked forward, seemingly at nothing as Botan left the room.  
  
Shade- Short? Yeah... Boring? Yeah... Out there? Yeah  
  
Please update 


	23. fire gem: hidden code

**_S_**hade- I do not own this anime (Yu Yu Hakusho) I own the following... or at least what I can think of:

Karuka Mokushi

The shadow amulet

The elemental gems/jewels

All of her powers (I think... you never know!)

And some other stuff too

Chapter 23: the fire gem: hidden code

The gang had made it to the North of Makai really soon. Don't ask me how. They conversed on what the fire gems power was.

"So, we can safely say that the fire gem would burn down any city if used. What would it do if it was destroyed?" Yusuke asked walking slowly with his hands in his pocket thinking.

"Would it destroy all fire? That can't seem plausible." Karuka said aloud.

"Well the sun gem eliminates light, the wind pollutes the air, and the ground kills vegetation. Um... we still need to know snow, water and fire." Everyone started to think of the plausible answers when the communicator went off.

"Yeah Koenma?" Yusuke asked to the tiny screen.

"Are you there yet?" He asked.

"No."

"Get there faster!" Koenma yelled to him. Yusuke closed the communicator quickly and everyone was off running.

three hours later

"Wait, stop for a sec. I need a rest." Kuwabara was bent over choking on his own breath as everyone stopped for him for the seventh time since rushing off in a fit after Koenma's call.

"Come on, we need to get there fast! We can't keep stopping for the oaf!" Hiei yelled from his position in the front.

"We can't push him Hiei, he could pass out. It's okay Kuwabara, take as much time as you need." Kurama wrapped him arm around Kuwabara's shoulder to help him stay standing.

"You really seem to be the mother of the group aren't you Kurama?" Karuka said looking up at the trees for no apparent reason.

"Well he does take care of us with all his poisons and antidotes and stuff." Yusuke pointed out. He squatted with his forearms on his knees and took the time he had to breathe steadily.

"Are you okay now Kuwabara? Do you think you can run?" Kurama asked him looking down at his seated position on the grass.

"Yeah, I'm ready now." He stood up and brushed himself off.

"Finally." Hiei said so simply.

"Let's go." They all ran off again and were in Dainubo within the next hour.

Standing at the edge of the forest before the large city Kuwabara and Yusuke were hunched over breathing hard and near close to puking.

"Koenma said we should talk with the museum manager to obtain the gem." Kurama said as he was scanning the area that stood before him for any signs of distraught folk, checking if they were too late.

"The museums' name is Seiki Shukufuku. It's in downtown Dainubo. We should go fast." Everyone walked off down to the museum. (A/N I'm really sorry that I'm writing this all choppy and stuff but its writers block. I'll make the next chapter better)

When the five had walked all the way through the city, they stood at the front steps of Seiki Shukufuku Museum. It's tall mahogany doors stood over the gang seeming to cascade over them. Abruptly, there were sounds of opening locks on the other side and the doors were opened and a worried man showed his face.

"Were you sent by Koenma?" He whispered to them, though not looking them straight forward. He was glancing around to make sure there were no suspicious people near.

"Yes, we came here to obtain the fire gem for its safety." Kurama said a bit too loudly apparently.

"SH! No one knows is to hear about the fire gem. We don't even show it to the general public! Please, hurry inside." The man opened the door wider for the guys to enter and closed it quickly but took one more glance outside the doors and shut them fast, locking each and every lock.

The guys stood in the dimly lit main room looking around at the artifacts that filled the museums core. So many rare items, it was a surprise no one had tried to break in and steal anything before.

"Please, follow me." The scared demon lightly jogged along the hallway as the rest followed him.

They finally got to a hidden door and the demon flipped open a part of the paneling to reveal a coded lock with a key hole too. As the man punched in the numbers Yusuke asked him a question.

"Excuse me sir, but how do you know someone is after the fire gem?"

"We've been getting threatening letters from demons who want the gem. They've actually been addressed to my employees' homes! Threatening their families, telling them they'll die if they won't give up the location of the gem. It's quite scary." The man finished unlocking the hidden passage way and opened the door to let the guys in.

"It's in here, locked away and safe for you to take." He said making a hand motion showing them they could take it whenever they wanted, preferably fast.

The guys didn't move at all. The room had no lights besides what the gem should give off from its center but no energy was there.

"Excuse me sir, but is there a light perhaps?" Kurama asked the museum manger.

"Yes of course, I'm sorry." The demon flipped a switch on the wall and a light filled throughout the room. Looking around, they all could see that the gem was not there.

"Just like I thought, there was no energy that the gem should have been giving off in the room." Karuka said still looking around making sure she was not mistaken.

"We're too late. It has already been stolen." Hiei said, in a tone as if nothing bad had occurred.

The manager was in such complete shock that he couldn't even speak.

"Looks like you're gonna need some people to do finger prints and stuff." Kuwabara had said looking at the case that the gem should have been in. It was just at this moment that the manager took the problem into his mind.

"OH NO! We must call Koenma!" He ran out of the hidden room leaving the rest behind to "worry".

"How could anyone have taken the gem? There's no sign of forced entry!" Yusuke pointed out still puzzled at the problem, and hoping the city wouldn't burst into flames instantly.

Karuka walked over to the case as the others conversed at what could of happened, trying their best to keep cool. Looking at the case, there was a little card of information just like the Santifugi gem had.

'Well that makes no sense.' She thought to herself, since no one had ever had a chance to see the gem. Then, something caught her attention. There was a small crack in the glass case. She started to piece things together and came up with her own conclusion. Before she thought too far in depth, Kuwabara's voice interrupted her.

"Should we be totally freaked out?" He asked no one inparticular.

Everyone just looked at each other looking to see who would answer his mundane question.

Karuka looked at him and said, "Yes." With that, he threw his arms up into the air and ran around screaming like the little girl that he is. (A/N sorry, I had to put that in)

Ignoring Kuwabara's actions, Karuka went back to the case and looked at the crack. The way the crack was made showed that it was intentional. This meant that the person or group that stole the gem was...

"Did you find something Karuka?" Kurama asked her. She rolled her eyes and straightened up to face him.

"Nothing." She told him. She knew that he knew she was lying but she didn't feel like explaining. Kurama looked at her quizzically trying to break through her simple look but it didn't work. So instead he examined the case that she had just a few moments before. Slowly walking away as Kurama was bent down looking at the glass obstruction, she thought deeper into her theory.

'Not that many are left, so the group must be an elite compilation of demons, and perhaps maybe... Py Ry...' Karuka shook her head at the thought and a serious expression grazed her face as she shut the possibility out completely. Hiei was looking at Karuka as the thoughts went through her wondering what she meant.

"Hm, I found something." Kurama picked up a piece of paper that was behind the case as the manager walked into the room again.

"It's has an odd language written on it, what does it mean?" Kurama showed the piece of paper around.

"It looks like a code. Sir, have you seen this before?" They tried to show the paper to the man but he was running around the room freaking out along with Kuwabara.

"Kuwabara! Stopped worrying, you need to take control of these situations and not blow things out of proportion. We need to keep cool like the professionals we are." Yusuke said to him trying to calm him down.

"Where is the gem?! Was it really stolen? Oh my god we're all going to die! My father will kill me!" Koenma rushed into the room screaming too. Yusuke, Kurama, Hiei and Karuka lowered their heads at the sight of the stupidity.

"Hey Koenma," Yusuke said sort of sounding annoyed with everything.

"Hey Koenma, do you know what in the heck this means?" He asked him showing him the paper that Kurama had just handed to him.

Koenma stopped in mid tantrum with his arms flailed up in the air and one leg lifted off the ground staring at the odd language written on what seemed to be an old piece of paper.

"I'll send it to ogre to decode." He stood up straight and cleared his throat, now trying to keep his cool.

"All of you will be sent out immediately to recover the fire gem. We can't let that power stay in the wrong hands for long. It could prove fatal to many." He turned to a slightly less scared Kuwa, but a still scared as hell museum manager. (A/N pardon my language)

"Lord Koenma, what will we do? The gem is gone! They finally got to it. What if they use it? Oh god I should have never taken that damn gem when they offered it to me!"

"Calm down! You are perfectly safe. Now that the gem is out of your hands you'll be safe. I think you should go home and take a rest." Koenma told the guy leading him out of the museum. He walked back to the rest of the gang.

"Did you really have to lie to him like that? You couldn't have told him he was going to die in a burning flame?" Hiei asked standing near no one in the corner of the hidden room.

Koenma looked stern into the faces of everyone.

"You need to get out and find that gem." He said to them.

"Fine then, let's go."

Shade- total writers block. That wasn't that good

People- damn straight


	24. fire gem: Controlled?

Shade- I am back! Please don't hate me for long time since updating

Shadowed Past fans- Death will soon be bestowed on you if you don't continue!

Shade- OK! So sorry! Here it is! (I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or-)

Shadowed Past fans- There's no time for that!

Shade- Sorry!

Extra note: This is a transition chapter to show you that I'm not dead and back at the computer

Extra extra note: There was a question by one of the readers a while back asking if Hiei and Karuka had met before and the answer is no. Although, Hiei had _seen_ her before wink, wink

Shadowed Past fans- Oh holy mother of God just start the damn chapter!

Shade- Okay sorry!

START

--

Chapter 24: Fire gem: Controlled?

The guys walked along the streets trying to sense a strange energy that would be from the gem. They were all on their heels ready and waiting for a fire to take down the city at any moment… just to be safe. Everyone at least besides Karuka. She was thinking of different matters.

'Could it really be him? Could he be the one doing this?' She thought to herself.

'If it is, could I actually kill him? Will I let the others kill him? I have no idea. Man, my father left me one task to do and I could not even do that. And that is why I am here today, with these scars, physical and emotional. If only Py-' Karuka was taken out of her thoughts by a hoarse voice belonging to Kuwabara.

"Karuka? You okay? Are you thinking to hard?" He asked her. She looked up into his dark eyes so it would be seen that she was acknowledging him.

"What is it you loaf of stupidity?" Kuwabara stared at her hurt by her words, and realized that she was thinking of something serious. He was too surprised to tell her what he was going to.

Kurama answered for him, "We had the idea to use Hiei's Jagan eye to search for the gem. Do you approve?"

"Why would my opinion matter? I am just the convicted felon serving her time." She closed her eyes showing that she was done talking for the time being and didn't want to be disturbed from her thoughts again.

"Well ok, get to working Hiei, and find that dang gem thingy." Yusuke demanded of him. Hiei gave a light gruff and walked off into an alley to search, as to not bring forth attention to his inhuman third eye.

The four onlookers stood in a sort of circle as Hiei took his time to possibly find the gem. They stood in silence for five minutes before a certain blue haired ferry broke Hiei's mind frame.

"Hurry!" She yelled.

"What is it Botan? Hiei's trying to find the gem right now!" Yusuke spat out in anger of the interruption.

"The gem is not in the demon world anymore! The demons who stole it have transitioned into the living! Fire's are breaking out all over Tokyo!" She yelled from her oar, almost falling off of it in hastiness.

"What? How is that possible?" Kurama asked her, fear rimming the words he spoke.

"They must have found an open portal and-"

"No, not that woman! Why are there individual fires? How can the whole city not be burning?" Hiei yelled out in frustration, from the situation and the fact that he had been pulled out of his search attempt.

"Oh dear! I don't know!" Botan said confused now.

"Someone must be controlling the gem to the brink of actually owning it. Slowly taking the earth down without making it seem like Armageddon. How can that be possible to limit the gems power to tiny fires instead of full blown insanity like it should be?" Karuka questioned, worrying more and more by the second about the new possessor of the gem and their powers.

"We'll find out when we get their, we need to get to the living world fast." Botan flew off on her oar as the rest followed her out of the demon world. (A/N they were in the demon world right? It has been so long since I've updated I've forgotten)

-Tokyo, Japan-

Turmoil was unraveling in the streets of Japan as the guys stepped out into the blaring heat. From first glance you could see five fires easily. It was horrible. Innocent bystanders ran in horror of the fires, as no one knew how they were started and the fire department was not enough to tame the wild infernos.

"You must do something to stop all of this!" Botan yelled over the screaming innocents.

"The only way to stop it all is to find the one with the fire gem and take them down." Yusuke said looking quite determined since he was watching his city practically fall to pieces in front of him.

"I think I can sense the core power coming from the East." Kurama said. Everyone instantly looked that way.

"We should go." Everyone went off running to find the problem and Botan left to tell Koenma that the gang was right on the problem.

--

Shade- I swear to everything that I love I will update soon and if I don't you can send me threatening e-mails or scary ones whatever is your forte

Shadowed Past fans- Will do!

Shade- gulp hehe… please review

Extra x3 note: There was a reviewer a while back who told me in the review 'well wasn't that adorable' or something like that and they wrote their name as ren and I was just wondering if that was a flame or not? It is kind of hard to read emotion on screen so I was just wondering... please review everyone else!


	25. fire gem: Power drainage

Shade- Merry Christmas everybody! I am giving you this chapter as a gift

Readers- YAY!

People- Boo

Shade- Why do you boo people?

People- We miss our home, back in People Land

Shade- O.O? You guys have a home?

People- nods

Shade- Well, in that case… I send you back to People Land to make you happy!

People- YAY!

Shade- Enjoy it, you deserve it with all the crap I have been giving you this year

People- Thank you Shade, you are very kind

Shade- You're all welcome, now, jump in the portal see your families in merriment!

People- Weeeeeeeee!

Shade- Please enjoy my gift to you

--

Chapter 25: Fire gem: Power drainage

The gang was running to the east and the source of all the mayhem in Tokyo. They dodged flying people who were running in the opposite direction, obviously from the worst part of the chaos. They kept going to see how strong of a demon there was actually controlling the gem. If a single demon was in fact controlling the gem's powers, they knew that this demon was incredibly strong.

"What's that?" Kuwabara yelled over all the screaming pedestrians.

"It looks like the outline of a demon next to something big." Yusuke answered for him. They all kept running at a moderate speed so the could stay together.

Once they made in better visual aid of the wreckage they could see a demon, though it looked like a human, standing on a large machine with fire burning not even five feet away from his body. And in the machine, through the flames, they could see the fire gem and its energy light from its core glowing brightly.

"Who are you?" Kurama yelled at the demon. He was covering his face from the heat of the blazing fires that didn't seem to singe the other demon at all. The demon slowly turned around to reveal green eyes and blonde hair. Karuka's eyes widened greatly.

The demon smiled towards her and said, "My name is Teremoto."

"Teremoto? What kind of third rate demon name is that?" Hiei spat out in anger towards him.

Teremoto only laughed. He jumped down from the machine he stood on that also held the gem in it and walked straight through the fire towards the group. Obviously, he was a fire demon. When he emerged from the flames his features became clearer. His hair was not blonde, but light brown, a little lighter than Karuka's, and his eyes were a mix of blue and green in one. He smiled as he walked towards them revealing long fang like teeth. That meant that he was a half breed. He was two inches taller than Kuwabara, which meant that he towered over the rest. He stopped in front of them with his arms crossing his chest, still smiling, and had a look on his face that said 'what are you going to try and do now?' Everyone stood up a little straighter as the mans presence seemed oddly to cool off the area. They figured he had a special coat of something that kept him from getting burned or at all hot. Yusuke was the first to speak.

"How in the hell did you do this? Are you controlling the gem?" He asked him. The demon lowered his head, seeming to cover a laugh. He looked back up to answer Yusuke.

"No, it is quite impossible to ever _control_ one of the elemental gems. However, reducing its affects _is _possible as you can see." He turned his head around and pointed his hand towards the machine that he had the fire gem trapped in, and while he was turned around Yusuke took this precious time to attack him.

Yusuke jumped at the demon with great speed and power, but the demon sensed his warm body enter his cool territory and quickly turned around to block. Although, Teremoto did not block with his body, he blocked with fire. Seeing this, Yusuke quickly dodged and got out of the way, except his loose shirt tail got hit and he was now on fire. Frantically, Yusuke put out the fire on his shirt before it could spread. He quickly got back to his group.

"How did you do that?!" He yelled at Teremoto who still was smiling.

"I have a special boundary line I made around my body. Every time something hotter than me comes within two feet of me, a fire wall builds it way around me instantly. Making sure I can never be attacked." He said, proud of his work. Suddenly he went alert.

"Where is the girl?" He said sternly.

"What are you talking about fool?" Hiei asked him.

"The girl you imbecile, she was right there and now she is gone!" Teremoto tried to turn around to find her but she was no where to found.

"I am sorry, but you are mistaken," Kurama started to say, "but there was no girl with us. It is just us four here, plus you of course." He smiled deviously at Teremoto.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kuwabara asked him. He was not in on the secret. He, of course, was too wondering where Karuka had gone so he looked around as well.

"I think being in this heat for too long has messed up your brain cells. You are seeing mirages now." Hiei continued, smirking inwardly to himself.

"Don't mess with me you idiots! She was here!" Suddenly a noise came from behind Teremoto and he quickly whirled around to see what made it. Nothing was there. Nothing but the machine and dozens of fires he had created. He slowly started to think that he was going crazy thinking that there was a girl when there probably was never one in the first place. And then he remembered something his leader had told him.

"_The girl, her name is Karuka, will be a devious one in the group. She will find a way to distract you. She, too, is a shadow demon as me. Make sure she does not have the opportunity to turn into a shadow, for she will take advantage of it to get what she wants."_

Teremoto quickly learned of the plan of this group. Finally calming down and realizing he was not insane, he took the time to feel the energy around him. His calm and smiling face worried the others, especially Hiei and Kurama. Teremoto scanned his area and found the energy of a shadow demon behind him near the machine, and the gem. He took fast action on this.

"I would advise you, Karuka, to not try and take the gem from its place in my machine." He said without turning around. He was right about Karuka's motives, she had frozen in place as she had come out of her shadow form right in front of the gem and was now reaching for it. She stared in disbelief that he knew she had moved. She figured that Kurama and Hiei confusing him enough to believe she was never there would have been enough. Sadly, it was not. She stayed in her place, as if she were etched in stone, still having her hand reaching out to the gem. She watched as Teremoto slowly turned around.

"There is now way to remove that gem without freezing the world. Not even your shadow powers can help it escape. As we speak, it is creating more and more fires to be released on this feeble city.

"One question Teremoto." Karuka started. She said his name as if she had known him all her life. She lowered her hand from jutting out towards the gem.

"How can this machine reduce the gems power to creating only small fires?" She asked.

"He, he. It is quite interesting actually." Teremoto started to walk towards Karuka through the fire that could not singe him. He left the guys who could not walk through the fire to watch their silhouettes converse with each other.

"You see, my machine can hold a vast capacity of energy. You see where the gem is placed inside of it?" Karuka turned her head slowly towards the gem and saw that it was lodged into the molding of the machine.

"The machine makes the gem dispense its power, although, it also reduces it by capturing most of the fire energy and imprisoning it inside. If you would like to check, the outside of the metal is _incredibly_ hot." Teremoto told her, smiling as she tested it. She lightly touched the outside with her finger and brought it back in pain. She looked at the tip of her finger and saw it red and singed. She stuck it in her mouth to relieve the pain. Teremoto only chuckled.

"I told you Karuka. You should have listened to me." She looked at him in anger and disgust as you could see from her facial expression. Her finger stayed in her mouth since the pain did not seem to go away quite as fast as she wanted.

"And if I remove the gem, it will be destroyed?" Karuka asked without looking at him.

"Yes." He nodded. Karuka looked down.

"I don't believe you." She said. Teremoto looked at her surprised, as did the gang since they could still hear what they were saying.

"Why is that?" He asked calmly.

"Because you are not a man to be trusted." Karuka lifted her head to reveal her now yellow eyes. Teremoto raised an eyebrow at this. His leader had said nothing of changing eyes within the shadow family. This confused him. On the other side of the fire, the guys could se the blaring glow of her eyes. None of them knew why her eyes did that, and they were not thinking it was because she was angry. She seemed always angry to them.

Karuka seemed to float towards Teremoto which scared the bejeebers out of him. It had been that she made her feet change to shadows and she could just glide toward him. Suddenly she disappeared and instantly showed up behind Teremoto. She tried to punch him in between the shoulder blades, but she had forgotten about his fire wall effect and burned her hand. She jumped back holding her hand in pain while Teremoto just turned around and laughed with his annoying smile.

"It seems you forgot about my defense… and offense." He walked towards her so she was left to scatter away as to not be burned again. How could she attack him with that defense? She thought hard for an answer.

'He said anything hotter than his own body heat would spark the effect of the fire wall. With all these flames around, my body heat can't get any where near his cooled body. What the hell can I do?!' Karuka then disappeared from sight again as Teremoto was trying to get her too close to him so she could burn. She basically had to go on the defensive.

"There's nothing she can do! I felt his body heat before and it was incredibly cold!" Yusuke said.

"She'll never get to Teremoto's own level." Hiei said wondering how she was going to get out of this one as she usually did.

"I'm afraid she'll need to work fast, and without the use of her right hand. It's been burned badly. For now we'll have to leave her here and try and put out these fires. The gem is still casting them out and if we don't work fast they'll take the city down." Kurama informed. They all agreed and trusted Karuka to find someway to beat this guy. But even if she couldn't there was nothing they could do because of the massive fire that separated them from the other two. When they got the other fires under control they would try and take down the separating one between them.

"Find your eyes quite mesmerizing Karuka." Teremoto said as he still walked closer to her. That only made them glow even brighter with rage. She jumped away again fearing the piercing pain she would feel if he got too close. How could she prevail? Nothing came to mind.

An evil smile, different from his other, creped its way onto Teremoto's face, and Karuka could see he had something in the works for her. Being distracted by her thoughts she saw Teremoto disappear and fire blaze in her face. She screamed in agony from the pain which caused the other four to turn around in worry. All they saw through the fire that divided them was a tall silhouette standing next to another that was on the ground screaming.

"We must hurry!" The boys ran off to find a way to eliminate the fire and get to Karuka.

--

Shade- nervous laughter>

Readers- evil glare> that was the worst Christmas present ever!

Shade- Should I mention this is a two part gift? The best part will come in the second half… ok

Readers- Glare>

Shade- Hey! At least it is there ok? I worked hard on this and that is what counts right?

Readers- Well your thought was good but deliverance was HORRIBLE!

Shade- It'll get better… at least I am updating

Readers- Yeah whatever but update soon!

Shade- Yes of course. Happy Holidays everyone! I know everyone is probably reading this in the 26th but I wrote it on Christmas. I'm gonna go to my Uncle and Aunt's house in a half an hour for dinner. All my cousins will be there and they are all really old. Like, 15 and 20 years older than I am… weird huh?

Well any who,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!


	26. fire gem: Interaction

Shade- This is the second half of my Christmas and now New Year's present. I hope you enjoy it.

People- Shut up

Shade- You're back?

People- Yeah

Shade- Did you have a good family reunion thingy?

People- We'd rather not talk about it

Shade- Ok

--

Chapter 26: Fire gem: Interaction

"Dammit! How the hell can we find enough water to put out that goddamn fire wall?!" Yusuke yelled as the four guys were running around to find a LOT of water.

"Yusuke."

"AHHH! Dammit Koenma! Will you stop scaring me like that! This is a serious matter! That freak demon is destroying the city and he's got Karuka!" Yusuke yelled at the baby as he floated in the air above him.

"I am aware of that. That is why I'm here." Koenma stayed afloat in the air with his hands behind his back.

"Unless you can pummel a wall of fire I don't care! You are in our way!" Hiei outbursted, getting annoyed at the baby's interruption.

"Well Hiei, I can't. But I can help you." Koenma said, fiddling with something behind his back.

"How Koenma? We don't have time to waste!" Kuwabara yelled as well. All the guys started to worry since Karuka's screams had died out a little while before.

"Dammit!" They whipped around hearing Teremoto's voice break the tension and seeing a bright light. The new Karuka had done something that pissed him off, and that was good.

"She's done something." Kurama spoke. None of the guys turned back around to Koenma, they had forgotten what he was talking about anyways.

"I hope she's okay." The guys still looked through the blazing fire to see what they could but nothing was really working for them. They could barely see even one silhouette through the thick flames.

"Excuse me, but if you want Tokyo to stop burning, I advise you to turn around." Koenma said. He now was on the ground and walked over to them.

"Well How?!" Yusuke yelled.

"This." Koenma took the item that he had hidden behind his back for all to see.

"The- the Hamisha gem?"

"Yes."

"What can that do for us?!" Hiei yelled, getting madder and madder at the time restraint. He, from time the time would glance back at the blazing fire to check for life. ()

"Put the fires out."

"But to do that, we'll need to flood Tokyo and that's not something I think we can do right now."

"That is why I am worried."

"Dammit Koenma! Will you stop wasting time and just explain yourself?!" Yusuke yelled once again, saying what the other three were thinking. He put the Hamisha gem in front of him and started to explain.

"If we replace the fire gem with the Hamisha, the machine will do the putting out by using the power. Although, we cannot take the risk of removing the fire gem. For what Teremoto said might be true, and the whole world would freeze."

"Well what else can we do? That's the only thing that seems plausible now." Kurama still pondered of other plans to go through with that wouldn't result in ruining the world.

"What the hell?!"

The gang could hear Teremoto's voice again. This time it held fear in its words. But suddenly, a burst of flames blew from the area inside the wall of fire and knocked them away, stopping their thinking of what had happened. They landed 50 meters away from where they stood before and they saw something they were all too familiar with.

"Karuka?"

"What's wrong with her?!" The guys were on their backs watching what was in front of them. Karuka was on fire, from head to toe. Although, she didn't seem to care. She stared off into nothing without feeling a thing on her body. The reverie she was in overtook her conscience so she would react to nothing. She seemed dead. But her eyes made her look shocked. She didn't move. Teremoto was on the ground, though regaining strength and getting back up. He stared at Karuka as well and tried to see how she could break the wall of fire he had on her. He was speaking rude things to her while she was burning, but nothing, as he could see, was rude enough to push her buttons. But something, he must have mentioned something that set her off.

"Do it." She whispered. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Her eyes were their disfigured yellow, but showed no anger. They stayed in their surprised state of shock, at something she hadn't been reminded of since she was little.

"What?" Yusuke and Kuwabara asked in unison.

"She means switch the gems!" Hiei grabbed the Hamisha gem from out of Koenma's hands and sprinted to the machine. The fire wall that divided them before was destroyed by the blast.

"Hiei don't!" Koenma yelled after him reaching an arm out to the bare air. He didn't know if removing the fire gem from the machine would work or freeze the world like Teremoto had said it would. Karuka did not believe him when he said that, but was that enough proof to believe he was wrong when so many lives were at risk.

Hiei sped past Teremoto and Karuka and stood at the front of the machine in the wake of the fire gems powers. It continued to cast fires on the city, and Hiei never thought twice of what he would do. He grabbed the fire gem and tore it away from the machine. Quickly, he replaced it with the Hamisha gem as the machine was about to burst from the absence of power. The Hamisha gem fit perfectly into the machine.

"No!" Teremoto yelled. Suddenly, a crack came from the sky, and it began to rain a heavy rain. The reduced power of a flood is a rain fall. Just as the reduced power of a large fire is, well, a small fire. Hiei looked up at the dark, cloud covered sky. He looked around, and saw the fires slowly being put out. Finally, he turned to Karuka. She still was staring into nothing with the same stunned look on her face. What could Teremoto have done or said that would affect her like this? A cold wind blew through area making Hiei slightly shiver. He turned around as he heard Teremoto groan in pain. He was shocked at Teremoto's appearance. He actually looked warm. In fact, he looked like he was burning up. The answer came to Hiei's mind. He new now that this demon was half fire, and half reverse demon.

A reverse demon is very scarce specimen. Mainly because if you got them in the opposite of a situation that they give off, they are very easy to defeat. In this case, Teremoto was _half_ reverse, and his other half was fire. And fire was what he used to interact with the reverse factor. He made it so the temperature of the weather _reversed_ his own body temperature. Therefore, warm weather made his body cold, and cold weather made his body warm. The fire shield was a factor of his fire genes that interacted perfectly with his reverse side, letting him have a wall of fire engulf him, serving as both a defense and offense. Too bad all of that has now backfired.

Hiei smiled and walked over to Teremoto's feet. He stood only five inches from him.

"What? How can Hiei do that?" Kuwabara asked. Yusuke was wondering the same thing, Kurama was piecing the problem together in his mind, and Koenma was in sheer shock that the world was not frozen solid. Kurama spoke to answer the question.

"With the rain, it has lowered Hiei's body heat because his prior temperature was above the rains, and it has raised Teremoto's because it is warmer than his own. Right now, they are at the same temperature." Kurama told them so they would understand. They did, and looked back to Hiei.

"Well it looks like your plan has backfired horribly." Hiei said smiling down to the trembling half breed.

"I will let your death go fast because you didn't know what you were getting yourself into." Hiei unsheathed his Katana and swiftly drove the tip into his abdomen, and drew the reddened metal back out. By this time, the others had gotten up off of the ground and were walking through the rain towards Hiei and Karuka.

"I- I can't believe that worked. I completely thought Teremoto's words were true." Koenma said.

"Yeah, well you gotta be willing to take chances once in a while, right Hiei?" Yusuke said in enthusiasm, slapping Hiei on the back.

"Hn," was the only thing that came from his mouth as his eyes floated to Karuka's motionless body. He walked over to her and looked into the deep yellow of them. If you looked long enough, you could see that they were sort of golden. And if you looked deep enough, you could see the scars that were marked on them from the horrid things she had seen in her life. The surprised look was chiseled onto her face. Something had affected her, and they didn't know how to get her out of her trance.

"What should we do about her?" Kuwabara asked as he too got near her face to see something. Everyone was crowded around her seeing if they could see why she was like this. Abruptly, Karuka's eyes closed, hiding their yellow glow. This set back a couple of the guys. They waited for her to do something, and she did. She collapsed.

Out of instinct, Kurama caught her in his arms. He carefully picked her up in his arms, making sure to not touch her burnt hand. He stood back up to the rest of the group.

"Should we go back?" Kuwabara asked.

"That would be the better thing to do. We should leave now and let the people fix all this up and not start asking about the sudden… uh… everything." Koenma said. The boys started to walk away from the dead demon (who would be picked up by spirit world helpers so the humans wouldn't ask about a slain demon) and the remains of Tokyo when an all too familiar voice was heard.

"Put me down Kurama," came the voice of Karuka from his arms. He looked down in surprise but her head was pointed to the ground. He slowly let her down, making sure she was not hurt. Her eyes had gone back to their pale green and she did not look anyone in the eyes.

"Go." She said. They stared at her for a second, but finally obeyed. They started walking off. After they went about a hundred feet Karuka started to follow.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" Yusuke asked.

"I don't know, but doesn't she always act like this? I say she's a drama queen." Kuwabara put in.

"I highly doubt that you, in your short, pitiful and wasted fourteen years of life, have faced anything close to what she has. I would rethink your own position on her emotions and just let them be." Hiei defended. He looked forward knowing that he had created them to stare at him, but, truthfully, he didn't care.

"Okay shorty, jeez. I didn't think you cared about her." Hiei's eyes sort of widened at that. Cared about her? Did he really? She had tried to murder him, though she also saved his life. Which, still, has him dumbfounded of why she ever did that. She also let out a secret of hers, one close to her heart. Her torn, scarred heart. One that involved her family, which Hiei knew if anyone brought that up to her, she would snap their head off. He concluded for now, that everything was confusing. He let the remark slip his mind after that.

Although, Karuka had frozen in place once again. Hiei's out lash to the buffoon quite surprised her. She knew that Hiei was aware of the horrible childhood she had, but she didn't think he actually cared. She, as Hiei had done, discarded the problem from her mind, and continued walking.

-Spirit World-

Karuka sat in an artificial tree that Koenma had made for her to be comfortable in. It mimicked the demon world for her so she would feel more welcome, and safe. She sat pondering about Hiei. So, he remotely took her life into consideration. She wouldn't say cared, because she didn't figure someone like Hiei would be that deep. She tried to stop thinking of him, and focused one Teremoto.

He was a pawn in a great plan. His powers were rare, and could prove fatal to many. Though, it could backfire with the simplest of mistakes. Something he had said, it just set off horrible things.

-Flashback-

"How do you feel?" Teremoto was standing above a burning Karuka. She did not answer him, she only struggled to stand up. She got to her knees and staggered to get to her feet.

"How does it feel, to be burned by the_ fires of hell_?" He drug out the last few words for a feel of horror. Although, the words stabbed Karuka in the heart. Her eyes shot open making the yellow glow cascade over Teremoto, pushing him back.

"Dammit!" He yelled. He fell back, surprised that she had the strength and ability to cast him away. She had frozen in place. Memories over flooded her mind. _Fires of hell. _ The image of her father screaming in pain from being burned to nothing, and watching, graphically, his soul being separated from his body. She was burning right now. Though she felt no pain, all the pain that she should have felt was being sucked into her necklace. Them. They kept her safe. From everything but her past.

Teremoto had temporarily been knocked out, and when he looked back up at Karuka he was astonished that she just stood there, burning alive, though seeming to not be suffering.

"What the hell?!" He yelled. He didn't take the time to start wondering of why this was happening with her, so he instead tried to attack her while she was under some trance. He created a fire ball with his hands and threw it at her. Although, he did not realize that fire that covered Karuka's body was acting as a shield like his own. When the fire ball connected with Karuka, something caused it to blow up, and a huge energy blew away from her body, throwing Teremoto away, and breaking the wall between her and the rest of the group.

-End flashback-

She sat on the tree with her eyes closed thinking about it. A single tear descended her face as she let the emotion take her over. She really didn't care at the moment. She didn't care about her crying, she didn't care about her probation, or her former plan to get out early. She was too affected by the past occurrences to care about really anything at the moment. She opened her eyes and watched the setting sun. It looked so peaceful, so soft, and quiet. Oh, if only. Her desires were interrupted as she had gotten so used to that happening. She peered down and saw Hiei staring at her.

"Hm," she thought.

"He never let himself be this obvious before." She thought as she jumped down from the tree knowing he wouldn't go away without something he wanted.

"Stump." She said, acknowledging him.

"Hn, woman." He returned. She scowled, not liking where this was going. She waited for him to talk of the reason he wanted to speak to her.

"Explain to me how you could withstand being on fire like that." Hiei asked. Karuka wondered about that. Did he really care?

"Over my lifetime, I've learned to endure the pain of being burned." She said, closing her eyes while rubbing her upper arms where her black bands were.

"Care to be more elaborate?" He asked her. She opened her left eye and looked at him quizzically.

"You seem to really care about people being elaborate Stump." She had opened her other eyes and gotten slightly closer to him.

"Does that matter? I told you to elaborate." He demanded. Karuka's eyes got slender.

"You don't _tell_ me to do anything. You _ask_." She said, now getting _closer_ and poking his nose. Hiei didn't know what, but she made something in him obey her when she wanted him to be polite. So he was.

"Hn, can you elaborate?" He asked in complete disgust of the strange power she had.

"Why yes, I can. But I won't." Hiei face faulted.

"Well why not?" He asked. He saw her eyes glaze over as she took quick glances to her arm bands. God, did everything to this girl have to be painful?

"It is none of your business Hiei." She said, using his proper name as opposed to her nickname for him.

"Hn." He said dropping the subject. This slightly surprised Karuka that he gave up, and saw the pain that the issue brought to her. This made her slightly smile.

"You know Stump," she started, returning to the nickname, "you can be kind when you want to be." She still smiled at him, though he just glanced at her. She brought her hand to his face, and grabbed his chin. Slowly, she moved her head to his face, and lightly kissed him on the cheek. She let go, leaving Hiei thoroughly surprised, and red faced. She slowly walked away towards the artificial cliff she visited ever so often, faintly smiling.

"Stupid kind genes I got from my mother."

--

Shade- I told you!

People- Told us what?

Shade- … something that involved liking this chapter as a gift or something

People- yeah, ok

Shade- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

People- Even though it's 3:00 in the morning on January 2, 2005

Shade- Shut up

Stump- Hey? Why does that name show up

Shade- coz that's what you are

Stump- So, you're not a shade

Shade- Well I think Fourteen year old girl who is going to fail her speech class because the teacher and assignments suck ass is a bit wordy

Stump- yeah whatever

Shade- Please review! And I hope everyone has a wonderful 2005! (I'm lying, I hope everyone feels pain and misery just like me because no one deserves to be happy)

People- Chocolate muffins?

Shade- No, the ones I had lately were all stale

People- Oh

Shade- Oh, one more thing! I would like to thank Darkgodess29 for suggesting that if the Fire gem were destroyed everything would freeze over. That gave me an idea that I'm probably gonna use, so thanks!

Extra note (god, I keep rambling): If people would check my bio, I have a 'coming soon' section, and there are two stories that I am thinking about writing and posting. So, if you guys could read those summaries and tell me if you like them and which ones, that would be cool. Buh bye,

Shade


	27. fire gem: The end

People- Where's Shade?

Readers- …

People- Where are the readers?

…

People- What the hell is going on?! We're all alone!

Unknown voice- AHHHHHHH!

The search for Shade: To be continued…

--

Chapter 27: fire gem: The end

"I can't believe Karuka just stood there on fire like that."

"Yeah, she's freaky." Yusuke and Kuwabara were in the human world and sitting in the front of Genkai's temple with her and Yukina.

"This Karuka you talk about, she seems very interesting." Genkai said, taking a sip of tea.

"If you consider crazy and ruthless interesting, then yeah, I guess she is." Kuwabara said.

"Kuwabara, she's not ruthless, she spared your life because you wouldn't fight back! She complimented you! YOU!" Yusuke yelled at him.

"This girl saved you Kazuma? Anyone who saves lives must be a kind person. I would greatly love to meet this Karuka." Yukina said innocently to Kuwabara who stupidly smiled at her.

"Well of course she's great!" He lied. Yusuke stared at him for kissing up to Yukina. He mentally laughed at a thought he had about Karuka meeting Yukina with Hiei around. Wonder what would happen?

"I think it would be a good idea to meet her. With all the things you've told me about her power, I am very intrigued to see her." Genkai said, setting down her cup on the tray. Yukina stood up, and took the tray to the kitchen.

"Yeah, well she's nothing special." Kuwabara said, now being able to speak what he really felt about her because Yukina had gone out of earshot.

"Well aren't you the honest one."

"Ok, let's get down to business here." Genkai said, looking back at the kitchen to hear Yukina humming as she washed dishes.

"You say a group of demons are after the elemental gems?" Genkai started to get more serious to the topic.

"Yeah, we've already gotten three. The Santifugi, Hamisha and fire."

"So that leaves ground, snow and wind." Genkai thought for a second about what the gems could do if they were all in the same, evil hands.

"Oh, by the way granny," Genkai eyed Yusuke, "Koenma told us to give this to you." Yusuke stood up and handed a wrinkled piece of paper to her. She flattened it out and looked at the odd writing on it.

"Where did you find this?"

"It was on the floor of the museum that held the fire gem. Koenma thinks it is an old demon language, and that the people who took the gem left it for us." Kuwabara answered her.

"Well the baby was right, it is a demon language. An evil language." Yusuke and Kuwabara stared at Genkai concerned.

"What do you mean?"

"This language was created by an old demon collaboration of traitors from their own race. They pawned their powers together to give to the devil, so they could have eternal, and deadly, power." She explained.

"Do you know what this says?"

"It looks strange to me, like it was written in haste. But I can make out what it says. Fire." She said with her eyes glazed over, not looking at the boys.

"Fire? Like the gem? What does that do for us? What's up with these freaks and what do they want?" Yusuke asked loudly, taking the attention of Yukina in the kitchen.

"What is wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing, everything's okay," Genkai said while standing up and turning toward Yukina, "We're inviting some people over soon, why don't you help me in the kitchen to help make food for our guests."

"Oh, that sounds just lovely, I'll take out the rice." Yukina turned around and ran into the kitchen to prepare. Genkai started after her, but first turned back to the guys.

"Tell Koenma to get this Karuka girl to come here. I would like to meet her." Then she turned around and left Yusuke and Kuwabara alone.

-Later-

"Why am I going to your friends' house?" Karuka asked as she was traveling through the beautiful countryside of Japan with the others.

"One, she's too cruel to be a friend, and two, it's a more of a temple than a house." Yusuke said.

"Whatever just answer my question."

"She wants to meet you. You seem interesting to her."

"And that doesn't seem sketchy to you at all? If you wanted to get me alone to kill me you should have just stabbed me in my sleep." Karuka said.

"Trust me, I would have tried that a long time ago if I could have." Yusuke said to her, making her stare daggers at him.

"Why didn't you then? Your brain didn't have the capacity to hold more information besides the ability to eat food and sleeping in the middle of the room with half a rice ball falling out of your mouth?" Karuka stabbed at him, the others looked at Yusuke and started laughing uncontrollably while in the car. Karuka ignored their laughter, though praised herself for her accomplishment inside. She stared through the window while watching the scenery wiz past her. It all was so tranquil and quiet. That was something Karuka had wanted all her life. No pressures, no concern, just to relax and not give a crap about anything but what will happen that day. But those possibilities had vanished when she was a child. She was forever burdened to live hectically.

"I'd rather be in that artificial tree sleeping."

"Wow, you become more like Hiei every day you know that? I'm pretty sure impersonating the shrimp can't be healthy." Karuka's thoughts were taken away and her eyes shot open. She slowly turned her head to look at Hiei, and she could see a light blush on his face. She shared the red, and turned back to the window, not really having the energy to make fun of the idiot. She just wanted to sleep.

"We're here." Karuka opened her eyes again. She looked at the wall from inside the car that hid the temple inside. She was actually very interested to meet this Genkai. She had heard about her all the time in the demon world of her power and skills. She was prepared to give respect where respect was due, and one of the most famous physics in history deserved an ample amount of respect.

Karuka left the car and started up the stairs to the temple, Hiei was behind her and slowly passed her. He looked at her with his average dead look, though for longer than what he thought he wanted to. Karuka locked eyes with him as well, but broke away feeling awkward. Hiei mentally slapped himself because he didn't like making her feel that way which he seemed to do a lot. Although, she too had made him feel awkward when she kissed him. It was nothing serious, just the cheek, but still out of the blue. He quickly left her alone to walk the steps so he wouldn't do something stupid again.

Karuka thought about what had happened as well. She didn't know what took her over to do that, besides the side of her that came from her mother. Her sweet mother, she did all she could to make the world better. Her mother was a fighter, and a healer. The only time she would be able to be with her mother for a good amount of time was when she would venture away from the palace to help villages. And she would bring Karuka along with her to improve her healing power. Her mother, Ruka, what sweet serenity.

"Come on Karuka!" She could hear Botan's voice travel to her ears and she started going a little faster.

-Inside-

"Hello, you must be Karuka, I am Genkai." Genkai bowed to Karuka and Karuka returned the favor.

"I have heard a lot about you, Genkai, and your unique power. One question though."

"Shoot."

"Tell me why you chose an idiot to be your apprentice." Karuka asked a now smiling Genkai, Yusuke had anime fell to the ground while the others smiled as well.

"It was not my choice, it was by default." Genkai answered.

"And water algae!" Botan put in.

"Shut up Botan! No one asked you!" Yusuke outbursted as Yukina entered the room with a tray of rice balls.

"Hello everybody!" She said so bubbly and bright.

"Hello Yukina!" They said back. Karuka stared at her.

'Yukina? Where is that name from?!' Karuka remembered back to the mission of capturing the Hamisha gem where Kuwabara was mumbling her name. It sounded so familiar to her but she was getting aggravated that she couldn't remember.

"Are you Karuka who saved Kazuma?" Yukina asked, jutting out the platter to her. Karuka was compelled to take on.

"Saved him?" She asked.

"Yes."

"I don't quite remember that." Karuka said confused. She stared at Yukina, still trying to remember where she saw her.

"Is- Is there something wrong?" Yukina asked.

"No, it's just you look very familiar."

"Really? I thought the same thing when I saw you." Yukina smiled at her so innocently. Karuka smiled at her.

"No really, I mean it, I can swear I have seen you before. And your name sounds familiar too. Yukina, you said?" She nodded to Karuka as everyone else seemed to be confused and wondering too.

"Well, we are all here for a reason aren't we? Come, let's sit down to talk." Genkai led Karuka and the rest to inside the temple to sit.

"Oh Genkai, you said that you decoded that language?" Botan asked.

"Yes, I did, though barely." Genkai said to the girl.

"That's great," Kurama told her, "Koenma gave us two more. This one was found under water in the city where we retrieved the Hamisha gem. Sorry it is hard to read now that the writing has been distorted by the water." He handed the two pieces of paper to her.

"How did you know where to find those?" Kuwabara asked him confused.

"Koenma figured that since a note like that had been found in the museum for one gem, he thought that the same would be for the rest, and he was right." Kurama told in response.

"What's that one from?" Yusuke asked looking at the other paper that wasn't with water markings.

"That one is from Satori city. Apparently the demons after the gems found out that the Santifugi gem was in our control so they left that. It seems that these papers are some sort of plan to lead us on." Kurama continued explaining what he thought was going on with this mysterious demon alliance and them.

"I think I can guess what they say." Yusuke said. Genkai looked up at him from the papers that she was analyzing thinking that he was crazy.

"You do punk? Fine, you try to decode them." She said handing the papers over to Yusuke, but he denied them.

"I don't need those papers. I already know that that one says water and that one says sun." He said confidently. Genkai stared at him for a second.

"You're wrong idiot." Yusuke face faulted.

"What do you mean I'm wrong?!" Yusuke yelled.

"Just because the other one said fire, you can't just say these mean water and sun. This group is more complex than that, and they wouldn't be that obvious. Besides, I already know the symbols for water and sun and these aren't it." Genkai explained.

"How do you know so much of this group of demons?" Botan asked.

"I had a friend long ago, who dedicated his life to taking down these demons. He learned everything he could about them, including this language of symbols. Often I would find myself interested in this as well, so I asked him to teach me some things. After that, I studied the words for hours every night after I would train. It is quite more remarkable then it seems at first. But the way these were written, it's so, odd." Genkai looked closer to the pieces of paper. Something by the way they were written confused her.

"Well once you do decode them, be sure to notify Koenma because he says they could be very important to the gems safety." Kurama said.

"Hm?" Genkai still looked at the papers on the table.

"Um Genkai, what is wrong with them?"

"Whoever wrote them, they must not know how to correctly, they must have been guided as they wrote."

"Why would they do that?"

"To have an innocent take the fall. These writings were written in a forbidden ink. When written on the same scroll of paper, if they are connected again, well, something bad happens. I'm not at time to tell you." She said.

"What does this all mean? What are you talking about?" Yukina asked worriedly looking from each person to the next.

"It's nothing Yukina, you don't need to worry your pretty little ice demon head." Kuwabara said. Suddenly, something clicked in Karuka's mind, and she remembered where Yukina was from.

'Didn't think I'd see her after so long, especially in the human world.' She thought with her thoughts open, not thinking anyone was listening. But someone was, Hiei was.

"Look, I'll need time to look over these. I think it would be best if you all return back to Koenma, except you Karuka. I still have things I want to know. If you would be so kind as to follow me?" Genkai asked her.

"Why yes, of course Master Genkai." She answered.

"Master? Since when does she act nice to people?" Yusuke asked Kuwabara quietly in his ear. Kuwabara shrugged.

"I agree with Genkai, we should head back. Koenma could need us at any minute." Botan said, turning to get ready to leave.

"Thank you for having us." Kurama said to Genkai and Yukina.

"You are very welcome Kurama. I hope next time you visit we will have a longer time to enjoy each others company. Good bye everyone!" She said cheerily, and waving to everyone as they left through the front door of the temple.

"Don't let you two get on each others nerves, I'd expect a bloodbath out of that!" Yusuke shouted as Botan tried shoving him out the door.

"How will you get back Karuka? They are taking the car." Yukina asked her. Karuka warmly smiled at Yukina's kindness to her well being. She was everything that she remembered she was.

"I'll be fine. I don't like riding in cars anyways." She and Yukina smiled at each other like they were friends. Genkai grinned at the two and how they were acting toward each other. If Genkai didn't know Karuka's past, she would have never believed Yusuke and Kuwabara when they had told her she was cold and mean. But, sadly, Genkai was aware of the horrible things she had experienced and sad that they had changed her so much. Karuka still had her mother's warmth burning inside of her. The soft and caring side of the tiger no one really sees. But it was there, and Genkai knew it.

"Yukina, do you mind washing the dishes while Karuka and I talk in the other room?" Genkai asked.

"Oh not at all." Yukina smiled again and turned to leave. Karuka was surprised that time had not taken this girls sanity or heart away. Usually that is what happens when people grow older, they see things that alter their feelings. Usually for the worse. But Yukina, she still was an innocent, little girl inside, tainted by nothing but a pure heart that made her loving, and made her loved. That was the girl that Karuka thought she was destined to be, but she was tainted by darkness. Her royalty was soiled with that of an outsider. A deep shadow covered her fortune, and made her deeply cut with heart wrenching wounds that would forever last, on skin, and in the mind. Karuka admired Yukina so much for her heart. The heart she would never have.

"Karuka, please follow me." Genkai looked at Karuka's sad, pale eyes and semi knew what she was thinking about. Karuka nodded and followed through the screen door.

--

The Search for Shade continued:

People- What was that?!

Other people- It was a scream

People- well der, we know that, but from who?

Other people- we don't know

People- Ok, Shade's gone missing and we don't know why

Other people- Hey look what we found!

People- It's a note… from Shade!

Other people- The only thing it says is bye… what does that mean? Is she leaving? Forever?

To be continued…

People- reviewing is dire to the continuation of this fiction. And the hunt for Shade


	28. BTFFA: Transfusion from dark to light pa...

People- We're so scared!

Other people- Don't be, aren't you happy now that she is gone?

People- Well, we thought we would be but now that she is gone, we actually… miss her!

Other people- Since when did you ever care about her?

People- Where is she? We're so lonely!

Other people- Hey, you got us

People- Oh please, you're just an extension of us so we can have someone to talk to while Shade and the readers are gone

Other people- So?

People- We're going to find Shade. Don't wait up

--

Chapter 28: Between the Fight for Answers: Transfusion from dark to light

Karuka and Genkai were seated in the heart of the temple where they were conversing about various things before they got to the big issue.

"Karuka, there is something I need to tell you." Genkai said to her.

"Something you need to tell me? We just met what possibly could you need to tell me?" Karuka asked smiling and slightly laughing.

"I knew your father."

Karuka's laughter stopped.

"What?"

"Your father, he was the man who tried to stop these demons before. The man who taught me of this language." Genkai put her head down not wanting to face Karuka's reaction.

"You're certain it was my father?" She struggled to get her words out from shock.

Genkai nodded, "Truyo Mokushi. World renowned fighter of shadows. Also of the lineage of the very first shadow demon, and inherited the shadow amulet." Genkai said, proving that she was telling the truth. When she spoke of the shadow amulet, Karuka grabbed to it under her shirt astounded of what she was hearing. Of course, why should she be? Her life was always filled with strange surprises like this. She slowed her breathing, wanting Genkai to continue.

"He was a great fighter, probably one of the best I've worked with that wasn't a psychic. He always told me of you and your brothers. He loved you all so much, it made me jealous of the fact that I never had kids." Genkai looked sort of dazed as she thought of something for a second, quickly though, she changed the subject fearing what Karuka still may want to know.

"Anyways, earlier you said that you recognized Yukina? From where may I ask?"

"Oh no, don't change the subject. I want to know more. Tell me more!" Karuka stood up and walked over to the still sitting Genkai. She had anticipation in her eyes waiting for her to talk.

"I will not go till you tell me more."

"There is no more. Nothing besides that ever happened and there is nothing that I have not said to you that you need to know. There is a greater problem at hand and I need your help decoding these symbols." Genkai said standing up and showing the two pieces of paper on her hand. Karuka didn't react at first, but she let her guard down and her emotion and somehow put the information behind her for the time being. She bowed in respect to Genkai which took her for surprise for a second till she shared the gesture as well.

"We need to translate these words, they could be very important to this mission. In fact, I think these words will have a lot to do with this mission. This group has a reason for everything they do, and out of evil ways they will string their nemesis with anything they can." Genkai said with a serious tone. She looked to Karuka who had sat down while she was talking, as if she wasn't really in focus. She knelt down to Karuka's face and saw she was staring at the floor.

"What's wrong Karuka?" She asked.

"My father was passionate about them wasn't he?" She asked at the level of a whisper. Genkai slightly smiled. She got to her knees in front of Karuka and rubbed her back.

"Yes he was child, he was a great man who did many great things in his life time, and all of that he did for you. To carry on the legacy of a strong hearted shadow family on to the next generation like every demon before him. There is more than power in that necklace of yours. There is history, culture, life." Genkai said trying to make her feel better. It didn't work. She didn't know that Karuka hated the burden of the amulet that hung around her neck like a noose. Karuka did not like the legacy she stood for. This legacy took her father away, it took her family away, and it took her life away. Genkai could see that her words weren't helping, so she put the papers down.

"We can look at these papers later. Let's go see what Yukina is up to. Maybe you'll explain your connection with her, it seems that she doesn't remember very well." Genkai said, talking about the fact that Yukina did not remember Karuka. She stood up and looked at Karuka with eager eyes. Karuka took the offer and stood up as well and headed for the door to walk to the kitchen.

When they walked into the kitchen, they saw Yukina sitting at the window with several birds around her. One of the birds had a broken wing and Yukina touched it and it immediately healed. The bird chirped and jumped on Yukina's shoulder and started to sing. Yukina smiled innocently. Karuka and Genkai smiled.

'I remember when I used to be able to do that.' Karuka stepped quietly into the room before Genkai made their presence known.

"Hello Yukina." She said.

"Oh, hello Genkai, Karuka. Are you done talking?" She turned and looked at them.

"For the most part yes." Genkai said while walking toward the table and sitting down. Karuka stood in the entrance watching Yukina walk to Genkai with a plate of sushi.

"Would you like some sushi Karuka?" Yukina asked her while gesturing the plate up toward her after giving Genkai some.

"You really like to cook don't you Yukina?" Karuka asked while walking over to her and taking some. She smiled at her and laughed at her question while putting the plate down.

"Yes, there isn't much for me to do while Genkai is training or out somewhere." Yukina answered.

"You don't go anywhere yourself?"

"Oh no, I haven't been in the living world for that long and I don't know really know where anything is."

"Where did you used to live?" Karuka asked slightly knowing the answer already.

"The Island of Koorime. That was where I born."

'I was right. She was the sick girl my mother took me to see. It seems my contribution helped her greatly.' Karuka thought of being a child and visiting the Island with her mother. They went to heal a sick child that was near death, and Yukina was that child.

-Flashback-

Karuka was very young, back when she still had her tiger yellow eyes. Her hand was lightly placed in her mother's as she walked along side of her. She was very cold as she was walking through a town of all blue haired women and wondering what ill person her mother would heal this time. Her mother stopped and looked down at her child. She joyfully laughed as she saw that Karuka was shivering from head to toe and her teeth were chattering as she smiled up at her mother. Ruka knelt down and tightened the grip that Karuka's coat had on her to try and keep her warm and the Island of Koorime.

"Mother," Karuka said up to her.

"Yes dear?"

"If this is an island, why does it float in the air and not in water?" Ruka laughed at her child's question and just poked her little red nose.

"I can't really explain that. It is just a name I guess, not literal." Karuka didn't quite understand but she nodded her head anyway.

"Now come on, we need to see this little girl who is sick. I think she is your age Karuka. Maybe after I heal her then you two could become friends." Ruka said. She knew her daughter had no friends outside of her brothers, and she needed to live more of a normal life than the one she had. Luckily though, Karuka didn't seem to mind, or understand, that it was only her, her brothers, and her father in the world.

"Excuse me Miss," a woman came running in front of the two, "are you Ruka?"

"Yes, yes I am." Ruka stood up to face the woman.

"You need to come fast. The girl is in terrible danger!" She yelled. Ruka became more serious and picked up Karuka and ran along side with the woman to get there as fast as possible.

Running to the scene, Ruka and Karuka could see a woman crying over a child in a bed. The woman was very young, and obviously, this was her child.

"She is Hina, and the sick child is Yukina. Please you must help her fast." The woman pleaded. Ruka nodded and set down Karuka down. She walked over to the woman and put her hands on Hina's back cautiously. She whipped around quickly and, seeing who it was, she grabbed onto Ruka's coat bawling her eyes out.

"Please! You have to help her! She's dying! She's dying!" Hina screamed, finishing the last words through pain of seeing her child die.

"Yes, I will help her but please, you will need to give me room to analyze her." Ruka said. Hina nodded still in tears and let go of her and moved away.

Ruka sat bedside next to the furiously coughing Yukina. She opened her eyes to look at the woman. Quickly, Ruka noticed that Yukina had red eyes, not very common among the Koorime's. She ignored the thought of eye pigment in her head and put her hand over Yukina's head. She was burning up. Her body temperature was that beyond a normal demon, and for someone like a Koorime, this was deadly. Quickly, she put her hands to the girls' forehead to see what she could possibly do to save this girl. However, in fear and pain, she retracted her hands quickly. Yukina's head was literally burning up. It was as hot as fire and Yukina could still not control her coughing. With each cough she made, the burning sensation would flood back to her throat again and make her wail out in pain. Ruka, holding her hand in pain, shuffled away from Yukina, completely surprised at the diagnosis she had made on the girl in her head.

"What can you do? Can you save her?" Hina asked through tear gems falling from her face and clanking on the floor. Ruka swung her head to the distressed woman with her mouth gapping open and surprise written all over her face. Never before in her lifetime had Ruka seen a case as rare as this. Where an apparition was facing the exact opposite of power they possessed. It was like a fire apparition being caught in a snow storm, and, therefore, an ice apparition trapped within the walls of fire. This is what Yukina felt, slowly burning to death within herself. There was nothing Ruka could do, only extreme lengths could be taken to cure her, but Ruka was not willing to take them for the cost she would have to pay was too much for her. Ruka tried to compose herself to tell this woman her child was going to die, but nothing could make her do it in the state Hina was in. Ruka quickly stood up and exited the room, motioning for Hina to follow. She did in fear of what she was going to be told. Karuka watched the two leave in confusion.

"Mother? Where are you going?" She asked, but she didn't get an answer. Her mother only looked at her from the doorway and broke out into tears of what she was thinking. She could never go as far as that. She couldn't give up Karuka for any other, she couldn't sacrifice her only daughter. This other little girl would die. Not Karuka. She stepped out with Hina to talk.

"What's going on? Why aren't you doing anything?" Hina pleaded to her, putting her hands up to Ruka's shoulders. She just grabbed Hina's hands and cupped them in her own, getting ready to tell her.

"I cannot heal your girl. If you could do nothing to save her, then neither can I." Ruka said with her eyes closed and head pointing to the ground. Hina stared at her in surprise.

"But we did everything. We tried every healing technique we know and she still wouldn't get better. Why? Why can't you do anything?!" Hina then broke down again. She fell to her knees with her hands still placed in Ruka's grip. This time, dozens and dozens of tear gems were cascading down from her face. Ruka looked at her and imagined her in that position. She couldn't handle it just as much as this mother. What person could? Finding they can do nothing to save their own child.

"Tell me," Hina started between breaths, Ruka looked down at her, "what is it that she has that is so terrible that no one can cure her?" Hina looked up at her with pleading eyes.

"The disease is called Contrary Sway Syndrome. It takes the opposing power of the victim and slowly… eradicates them till they are no more. Right now, your daughter is slowly burning. Contrary Sway Syndrome is very rare but when it does become present in a body if another demon or apparition of the elements touches it they too become infected. Please, you must tell me who has touched Yukina. I might be able to help cure them." Ruka told her.

"Why would you be able to help them but now her?" Hina asked.

"Because, when the disease is transferred, its power is reduced when it touches the oxygen between the ailment holder and the new victim. Therefore, it is easier to take care of in the second body since the energy is radically less then in your daughter. Plus, this particular disease can only be transferred once from the original sickness placement, so, if you touched your daughter anyone who touches you does not become infected." Ruka explained. Hina still looked confused.

"I- I still don't get it. Aren't you now infected since you touched her? And are you sure there is absolutely nothing you can do?!"

"Hina, because I am a tiger demon is why I don't get infected. This disease is only transferred through the elements, ice, ground, wind, fire, water, sun, and, in rare cases, shadow." Ruka said, struggling the last few words and thinking about her daughter. Hina still looked at her from the snow covered ground with saddened eyes and tear gems falling to the ground.

"She- Yukina is- my baby-" Hina couldn't compose herself to speak. Her Yukina was going to die. Ruka knelt down and rubbed Hina's back.

"Please Hina, you must tell me who touched Yukina while she was sick like this."

"I'll show you inside." Hina said through stifled coughs. She stood up slowly and walked to the door. Quickly, she turned to Ruka.

"I touched her too." She said worried.

"Don't worry, I can cure you." Ruka said. Don't worry? Don't worry! What a thing to say to a mother as her daughter is dying. She gripped Hina's shoulders as she entered the room with the several women in it. They quickly turned to the two in hopes of a cure or antidote for Yukina, but by the look on Hina's face, they could see there was none. They quickly walked over to her and hugged her in sympathy as she, for another time, broke down. Ruka tried to keep her emotion away for a second. She looked at her daughter who just stared at the group of women in confusion. Ruka forcefully smiled at her as she still tried to keep tears away. She walked to Karuka and picked her up to look at her.

"Did you touch the little girl Karuka?" Ruka asked her. Karuka shook her head no to her with her thumb in her mouth. Ruka, again, forced a smile to make it seem as if nothing was wrong. Though that was hard with several bawling Koorimes behind her, but she tried her best. She set Karuka down and turned to the others.

"Please, will anyone who touched Yukina come outside with me? You have probably been infected with her disease and I need to cure you." When she said this, the other women gasped in shock, but obeyed.

Outside, Ruka touched each woman's forehead to cure them. She could feel heat from their heads and she was sure that Yukina had infected them. But, because of the cold environment, when the disease was transferred, the fire effects were decreased before entering the other skin.

Karuka was left alone with Yukina. Or, the coughing girl as she had dubbed her. She sat right be her bedside and watched her cough. She was thinking about the disease that her mother had said she had. Karuka, being half tiger demon as she was, had great hearing, and heard the whole conversation of her mother and the other woman from outside. Contrary Sway Syndrome. Karuka had heard about that disease before. And she knew the only way for it to be cured was if another demon or apparition of the elements, who was trained in healing, shared their healing power with the victim, so they could work on curing themselves from the inside. Karuka was surprised though, since she knew that Ice apparitions had healing power, and she wondered how this girl, or any other apparition that was there could cure them. I mean, they were part of the elements, ice… duh. And Karuka, she was half shadow, an apparent element, or sometimes an element. Sort of like the letter Y. A E I O U and sometimes Y. And shadow was the Y. Only used if the others do not fit. So, in Karuka's mind, that meant that she was the only one who could cure the coughing girl. She looked into the red eyes of Yukina with her yellow and smiled. Yukina could not return the gesture. Seeing this girl in pain made Karuka sad. She wanted to help her as much as she can. Give as much as you can to help someone else. That is what her mother always said. And that is what Karuka would do. Although, Karuka wasn't sure if she had enough to give to help this girl, but she would try her best to do as much as she could. Karuka thought of the cure for this disease and what she would have to do and give up. It was a lot, but to help someone else live, it was just enough. She closed her eyes to ready herself. She put her hands in front of her, palms out readying her healing power she got from her mother.

"COUGH what are COUGH you COUGH doing?" Yukina quietly said.

"I am going to help you." Karuka said to her.

"Thank COUGH you COUGH." Yukina managed to say. Karuka smiled at her and placed her hands on Yukina's burning forehead.

--

People- Question… if Shade is gone, then how are her stories still being updated?

Other people- We don't know

People- So you decided to come?

Other people- Der, we're here aren't we?

People- Shut up

Other people- Whoa, you guys get more like her everyday

People- Shut up… oh yeah… and to you guys (readers) review and maybe Shade will come out. If you don't, we'll shoot you (not literally, but we'll haunt you in your dreams) Please just review, flame, speak gibberish we don't care! Just press that little GO button and submit a review. It doesn't take that long to voice your opinion.

Shade- Yeah! Do it!

People- Shade!

Shade- Gotta go!

People- No! Damnit! Why didn't you guys get her?!

Other people- We don't know

People- Oh shut up…. Please review, she'll come out I swear!


	29. BTFFA: Tranfusion from dark to light par...

Shade- Yeah, I'm back, whatever

People- WHOO HOO!

Shade- Shut the fk up

People- O.O

Shade- Here… as if anyone is reading this… this is gonna suck

Chapter 29: Between the Fight for Answers: Transfusion from Dark to Light part II

Karuka was sitting bedside at Yukina's side and her hands were placed on her forehead and a dark light was illuminating from them. Karuka had her eyes closed as she thought of what she was doing. Soon enough, Karuka's hands were shadowed into Yukina's face and she was freaking out.

"SHHH! Please! You need to be calm!" Karuka said opening her eyes to meet Yukina's red ones.

"I can't!" Yukina managed to say hoarsely behind Karuka's hands.

"You need to be! It is the only way this will work!" Karuka said. Yukina obeyed the best she could, and stifled her coughs as she let Karuka cure her.

A dark orange light surrounded Karuka as she kept her eyes closed, concentrating. Her hands started shaking as her own healing power was being absorbed into Yukina. The way for Contrary Sway syndrome to be cured was for a strong enough healer of the elements to transfer their own healing power to the victim. The best element for this was shadow because shadow acts as the bridge between all elements. It can't affect any element to lessen its power because it just shadows the other power, making it change to the victim's element, making them stronger, and allowing them to heal themselves from within. The process of elemental exchanges is harder and longer with the other elements. They just wouldn't fit in this case. Only Karuka could help her. And that's what she was doing.

"I feel better." Yukina said.

"Good, because you'll need to do the second half of this healing. I'm not quite done with this just yet though." Karuka said. Yukina lightly nodded her head in understanding and smiled under Karuka's warm hands. Karuka was happy she was helping this girl live, but she didn't know the consequences of this healing session, and what it would do to her. If Karuka was a decade or two older, she could heal Yukina in this state no problem, but at such a young age her powers aren't enough to divide between the two. And she is giving most of her healing power to Yukina, which will leave Karuka dry. But she didn't know this. She didn't know that the fact with her healing power still fresh and raw and only half of it working as shadow, that she might die if she gave it to someone else. She didn't know that she, herself, was living off of that power.

"I'm almost done. This may hurt." Karuka warned. She moved her hands to Yukina's stomach and drove them further into her. A bright light was illuminating from the spot as Yukina's now clearer voice boomed out in new pain. As the disease was being slowly controlled from the inside to make it better for Yukina to handle and heal later, some of it touched Karuka, causing the light to shine because it was the opposite of Karuka's power as a shadow. Then, as Karuka put it back, it changed to fire for a brief second before finally converting to ice to heal from the inside. However, Yukina was still in a great deal of pain from the sudden entrance of power and a single tear gem fell from her eye. Its color was strange, and not like any other tear gem she had cried before. One side of the gem was black from the shadow power that was in her, and the other was red, from the burning disease that she was going through. It clinked to the floor as Karuka took her hands from out of Yukina's stomach. She looked flustered and tired as she breathed with odd difficulty. Her hands were glowing a bright yellow and it slowly started to spread to the rest of her body. Karuka stared in fear of what was happening. She had just been infected with Contrary Sway syndrome. But how? This was the healing process, she shouldn't be infected.

At the moment, since she was only seeing a bright light, Karuka thought that she was in fact infected, but the truth was that she was suffering from the absence of her healing power. Since Karuka was so young and hadn't worked a lot on her healing power it was just raw power that was yet to be tamed, which meant that she needed it. Her eyes were wide as her body stiffened in pain and she fell to the ground. Just then, Ruka and the other women entered the room since they could see the bright light from outside and what they saw scared them horrifically. Ruka stared at her daughter that was on the ground and ran to her side. She looked at Karuka's weak and skinny body, she was a lot skinnier then she was when they arrived on the island. Ruka knew what she had done. She had healed Yukina by giving her her own healing power to help her from within which was the only way of curing the disease. This was the whole reason Ruka didn't want to have Karuka attempt to heal the girl because she would literally lose half her own power. Why hadn't she told Karuka of this side effect? If she had Karuka would have never attempted this impossibility. Now there was only one thing to do. She carefully picked Karuka up and set her along side Yukina who was looking a whole lot better than before. It seemed Karuka's work had helped and she saved the little girl, but if Karuka died it would be the exact same affect and lose to the world.

"Are you ok Yukina?" Ruka asked shakily to her. Yukina nodded and turned her head to look at Karuka's shocked face.

"Is she ok?" She asked as Karuka's eyes were doing a weird shaky thing as their color was sort of changing. Ruka didn't answer her but put her full attention to Karuka. She felt her forehead and it seemed just fine. She checked Karuka's palms to see if they were clammy and they weren't. She put her ear to Karuka's chest to make sure she was still breathing and she was. Finally, she looked into Karuka's eyes and watched them change to a pale green.

'This is her transformation.' Ruka thought. As she was watching Karuka's eyes change from yellow to green she thought of the past where her four sons went through the same change. When Pyro went through it he said his eyes burned like fire, when the twins went through it they too had a burning sensations and also skin irritation. When Tadashi changed eye color he went through both those symptoms and an ear infection. Therefore, now that Karuka is going through it she would have the same affects and one more that no one was sure of. What could it be?

"Ow…" Karuka whispered. Everyone in the room looked over to her as she was having weird convulsions that made Karuka's body twitch madly on the bed. Ruka, scared that all of these symptoms would take her only daughter, quickly attempted to fill her daughter with power of her own so she could fight against the symptoms of change like her brothers had done.

"My eyes!" She yelled. As she yelled in pain of the burning feeling she had in her eyes she madly scratched at them to relieve herself. She flayed her limbs in all directions trying to escape the horrible pain. She madly tried gauging her own eyes out to relieve herself of this horrid pain. However, Ruka knew this was bad because Pyro had attempted the same thing so she quickly grabbed her daughter's hands and removed them from her face. Karuka still shook with the odd wrenches of pain inside of her stomach. Everyone in the little hut was afraid of what was happening. Hina ran to the bed side and quickly grabbed Yukina away from the havoc and tripped on her way back as she was still watching Karuka cry out in horror.

"AHH!" Karuka was now being subject to the skin irritation. She scratched at her skin causing flakes to fall from her body to the light snow that plated the ground on the island of Koorime even indoors. She rolled over past her mother and hit the floor with a thud trying to soak up all the snow she could to relieve herself. She was screaming into the ground and converting all the snow around her to shadow to further ease the pain.

With Ruka's soft hands on her daughter's stomach, she quickly moved some of her more refined healing power into Karuka's body. Slowly and surely, Karuka's was able to fight off the symptoms she was being subject to. However, Karuka was still in a great deal of pain as the ear infection went by oddly well. You'd think being a tiger, Karuka would have a horrible trouble with the ear infection but with her mother's temporary healing she was handling it just fine.

'What could it be?' Ruka thought about the last symptom. Just as the thought ran through her head, a bright light shined into her eyes. Ruka fell back from the sudden pain in her eyes and screamed. As she was screaming, another voice joined her. It was Karuka. Because her mother's hand left her stomach, Karuka was reintroduced to the pain. Looking up, Ruka and the others saw where the bright light was coming from.

"Karuka!" Ruka yelled as loud as she could, as if the light was not only separating sight between them but sound as well. As she inched herself back to her daughter she could see where the light was coming from exactly. Three very distinct lights were illuminating from Karuka's eyes and mouth. What kind of symptom was this?

Before a legitimate answer could be thought, the light that had resigned inside Karuka's body exploded, sending all the women flying back and the little shack was destroyed.

Moments later, all the women and remnants of the shack were lying motionless on the snow covered ground. All the light that was coming out of Karuka was gone. She was only resting on her back in the snow, allowing the substance to soak through her clothes. The bed she was lying upon had blown up as well and only black dust surrounded her. Ruka started to stir and opened her eyes to look at Karuka. Quickly, she scurried over to her side.

"Karuka! Karuka can you hear me!" She screamed at her daughter. She grabbed her shoulders and rested Karuka's head in her lap. Then, she slowly started to cry.

All the other women crowded around the two tiger demons after they had found the strength to stand up. Yukina, at her mother's side, shed a tear. However, unlike her deranged tear she cried from before when she was sick, this one was her normal white. Hina gripped her daughter's shoulders tightly, knowing full well that could have been her if she was still in the bed.

Ruka's silent crying continued as the snow fell steadily, slowly covering up the black residue that Karuka was in the middle of. Cradling her in her arms, she was surprised to hear Karuka's voice travel through her mind.

"Mother?" Hold on, that wasn't just her mind, that was out loud. Ruka opened her eyes and looked down. Her expression was that of surprise. Slowly, her tears started drying up, and her frown was replaced with a smile as she gazed into her little girl's green eyes.

End flashback-

"Karuka?" Karuka shot out of her reverie and looked at Yukina. She looked exactly as she did in her flashback.

"Are you okay dear?" Genkai asked the next question.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. Um," Karuka shook her head from its confusion, "I think I'm ready to start figuring those symbols out now." Karuka quickly stood up and hurried to the door before she could get a reaction. Genkai and Yukina looked at each other confused, but Genkai stood up and followed her to finally decode the symbols.

Shade- Review. Nothing much more to say.

People- Jeez, what's up your-

Shade- Review. Nothing much more to say.


	30. Snow gem: The beginning

Shade- Yo, been a while huh? Hehe, hehe... uh

People- You effing bitch

Shade- I like to take my time

--

Genkai and Karuka had been inside the room for over and hour trying to depict what the symbols could possibly mean. They had argued and argued and sat in silent confusion for the most part. Yukina would come in occasionally to bring them food for thinking and give them company when they were too stressed from their work.

The way they could find out what the symbols could possibly mean were by studying the width and angles of the strokes of the ink on the paper. It was a very confusing language to master, especially as an adult. Also, it had been so long since Genkai had studied the symbols with Truyo, that she had forgotten some rules of the written language. She was hoping Karuka know enough to fill in those holes.

"I'm telling you, if you look at the length of the stem lines and the angles and millimeters at which the size decreases, it clearly proves to be the syllable FO." Genkai was arguing with Karuka again on the meaning of the strokes in each symbol. As Genkai had been taught, the rules for the correct language were extremely confusing and sometimes extremely stupid.

"But you said yourself, Genkai, these were written oddly and probably by someone who hadn't done this kind of work before. What if this person's calculations are wrong? What if the collaboration wanted them to be wrong?" Karuka looked at Genkai to see what she thought. Genkai kept the possibility in her head for a while.

"If that's true, what you say, then how are we ever going to depict them correctly? Especially with this one that was distorted in the water. Doesn't this all just seem like a lost cause now?" Genkai just stared at her, trying to get some answers out of her. Karuka thought for a moment, like she had made Genkai. She sat down in frustration, frizzling her hair a bit. Genkai followed, but more calm.

"Genkai?"

"Yes?"

"What could these demons possibly want?" Karuka looked up, not expecting an answer at once, but checking for her expression. Genkai looked down at the hardwood floor; she really didn't know where any of this was going.

Karuka looked out the one window that overlooked the garden. It was a beautiful day, and she was stuck inside trying to figure out what could be the answer to one of the biggest disasters in history.

"Genkai?"

Yes, Karuka?"

"How many characters to you remember? From the language, I mean."

"Oh, dear, I'm afraid I don't know all that many correctly-"

"I don't care if it's correct. Just from the top of your head, how many do you know?" From the look on Karuka's face, it seemed she was on to something, so Genkai went along.

"From what I was taught, and all the hours I spent learning, I suppose I know 50 or so."

"Good," Karuka said, standing up and walking to the window with her hands behind her back. "I want you to write down as many as you can remember so we can compare them with these. Perhaps if we compare yours, which wouldn't be too professional since it has been a while, with these two we could determine their meanings." Genkai looked at Karuka's back in slight confusing. She stood up, facing Karuka.

"You don't honestly think that would work do you? It does seem like a long shot."

"We don't have anything else besides a long shot." Karuka turned from the window to look Genkai in the eye. She knew as well that if they wanted to get any closer to answering these strange writings they would have to do anything they could. Genkai walked to the door and opened it slightly.

"Yukina, bring me some ink and paper."

Several more hours later Genkai had been prodded by Karuka to write down as many characters as she could possibly remember. Occasionally, Genkai would make up ones just to get Karuka off her back. Karuka was sitting at the window and trying to think of any strange character she may have seen at her house when her father was around. She scribbled down a few that she seemed to recall but they didn't seem anything like the two they were trying to find. A couple more came into her head that she remembered right before her father left for the fatal fight he was in, but yet again, they didn't match at all.

"Anything?" Karuka stood up and walked to where Genkai was seated with at least thirty papers surrounding her.

"A couple seem to resemble them. But not by that much. You?" She looked up after shuffling a few around. Karuka shook her head.

"Although, we should save all of these, just in case."

"Yes, that would be best." Genkai looked up at Karuka and saw a sunken in look in her eyes. She could tell that Karuka was tired.

"Maybe we should stop for tonight. I'm sure they'll allow you to stay over. Let me call them."

"Fine, you sure you won't mind?" Genkai shook her head no and lead Karuka to a bedroom. Karuka slid the door closed and turned around looking for a window. The room was quite cozy, a chest of drawers off to one side and the closet on the other. The bed was stuck in between the two, and that was where she found the window. She saw one above the bed, opened it up, and quickly left.

Forest

'_It couldn't be, could it? No… it's not possible.' _ Karuka was running at her top speed through the forest, making everything around her seem a blur trying to get back to the guys as fast as possible. She had decoded those two symbols; she remembered something from the day her father died. Something he was fiddling with in the den, symbols she had never seen before. Until now. She had thought nothing of them then, but now, they were incredibly important.

As all these thoughts ran through her head something suddenly came out from a bush, knocking her over. She got tripped up and fell to the ground, rolling for several yards till she skidded to a dusty stop. As the dirt fell back to the ground she could see a rock near her with blood on it, her blood. She looked to her ankle and saw a slender trickle of crimson slide down it. She looked up as she breathed heavily. Someone had purposely thrown that at her. And he was standing right in front of her.

"Who the fuck are you?" Karuka stood up and wiped some dirt from her face to see a laughing demon with strangely pale skin. He had snow white hair and his eyes were all white. Even his clothes seemed oddly white, no dirt or anything on them. He started to talk.

"Hello Karuka. How are you?" The demon's voice was a high voice. The smirk on his face never faded away.

"How the hell do you think I am? And who the fuck are you?" Karuka was slightly angered.

"Oh, we'll get to that later. I came regarding the jewels." Karuka froze. He was apart of them. She tensed up and walked a little closer, becoming more aware of her surrounding just in case. The demon noticed and responded.

"Oh don't worry, you won't be attacked here. Some people are waiting for you. I'm sure you'd like to see them as soon as possible."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you turn around and go back to Genkai's I'm sure she'd love to tell you." It was just then Karuka saw two pieces of fabric in the hands of this demon. Both looking familiar, because they belonged to Genkai and Yukina.

"What did you do?" Karuka started walking forward as anger fell over her. If he had touched either of them…

"Oh they're safe. But I believe you should talk to Genkai about these gems." He then pulled out a bag that showed several gems. All the gems the guys had found and thus taken from Spirit world.

"How the hell did you get those?" Karuka was past mad and was going on furious. This guy was obviously from the bad side. Her eyes glowed a sudden yellow, letting her emotions take over.

"Oh, don't attack. Trust me, that won't work. Besides the fact that I have you frozen to the ground." The demon pointed to the ground and showed Karuka that she was in fact frozen to the ground. He had somehow used his powers to freeze her feet to the ground, leaving her immobilized.

"Now, I will defrost you from the ground, but you have two choices. You can fight me for these gems back, or you can go look on Genkai about Yukina's future health. Trust me; she's in need of help where she is now. However, that, Karuka, is out of my hands." His smile widened and Karuka debated whether to leave as the ice around her feet started melting. She finally decided, and sprinted off back to Genkai's.

The pale demon walked forward and picked up a small rock. Blood dripped off of it almost hitting his snowy white shoe.

"This should do," he said and rose the other two blood covered fabrics in his hands, "Let's hope she wears something warm, don't want her getting a cold."

--

Shade- Yo… reviews please


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